COEUR d’ALENE — John Nicklas and Linda Noble-Hatterburg met in late August. Next month, they’re getting married.

Seem fast?

“People I am sure think, ‘Well, you're kind of rushing things,’ but you gotta think we don't have much time,” Nicklas said, smiling.

That’s because John is 90 years old. Linda is 79.

They don't have time to waste, so they won't. They’re young at heart, in love, and want to be together and say they have a lifetime of adventures ahead of them.

The ceremony is set for May 14 at John’s Fernan Lake home, and the reception the following week at the Lake City Center, where they met.

What about just living together to try things out, as it seems most couples do these days?

That wasn’t an option.

“John and I were not willing to just live together," Linda said. "I wanted to be able to say, ‘I’m Linda and this is my husband, John.' He felt the same way.”

“We didn’t want to just be boyfriend and girlfriend,” she said. “We wanted that commitment.”

They know about commitment.

Both were in long-term marriages and became caregivers for spouses who suffered from dementia in their later years.

“And so after we lost our spouses, both of us, you just get lonesome,” Linda said.

They met when Linda arrived for lunch at the Lake City Center.

“I kind of looked around the room and most of the tables were full,” she said. “Most of them had women at them because the women out number the men, but there was one table that had three men. And I said, ‘Well, I'll just go sit with the men.’”

She sat down next to John Nicklas.

The first of many times.

“It seemed like every week when I would come in, there was always a chair available next to John,” Linda said. “So we got to know each other. And after about three or four weeks, John came out to my car with me and said, 'Would you like to have lunch at my house tomorrow?’ That's how it started.”

And a good start it was.

It was a fine lunch of sliced roast beef - so good that it won Linda's admiration.

"He likes to cook," she said. "That was another thing in his favor."

They began hanging out together, learning more about each other.

John was impressed by Linda’s life story, that she had worked for AT&T for 30 years, raised two daughters, and attended college.

“I thought, ‘Here’s a woman that really knows how to get things done,'” he said. “She doesn't complain about how hard it was or anything like that.”

The more time John spent with Linda, the more he liked her.

“I’ve got to keep this going,” he said.

Linda was impressed by his career. He has a Ph.D., mechanical engineering and worked in the aerospace industry.

She liked John’s style, too.

He was well dressed, loved to travel, as she did, and displayed a quiet confidence and self-assurance that she admired.

“He just seemed so caring,” Linda said.

Still, his proposal wasn’t much to brag about.

“I don't know if I ever really did,” he said, laughing.

Linda recounts it like this:

“We were at his house and we were having dinner and he says to me, ‘Well, when we get married ...?’ and I said, ‘John, are you asking me to marry you?'"

“Well, yes, I guess I am,” he answered.

For Linda, it was enough.

She said yes. Today shows off a beautiful diamond ring on her wedding finger.

John was delighted.

“Go for the positive," he said, smiling.

They plan to take a trip to California after their wedding and have a late honeymoon in July with a trip to Banff in Canada.

They’ll live in John’s Fernan Lake home, where John does his own yard work.

Their families are happy for them.

“John's children have welcomed me into the family and my family has done the same thing with John," Linda said.

Neither cares about their 11-year age difference. As far as they're concerned, it's one of those non-issues.

What really matters is both are physically fit, mentally sharp and enjoy getting out and about. They attend downtown events like the Mac N Cheese Festival, enjoy symphony concerts and have tickets to Coeur d’Alene Summer Theater.

But toss all that aside.

Most important, they make each other happy and just like being together.

John, never a dog man, even gladly accepted Linda’s 11-pound Cairn Terrier, Buddy, as a newfound friend.

“John knew that I came as a twosome,” she said.

After 90 years, he knows the way to a woman's heart.