Dating is weird.
If aliens came down to Earth one day and you had to explain to them that unlike almost every other species on the planet (that simply mount up and get to breedin'), human being instead travel to arbitrary locations in their civilisation in order to decide whether or not to breed, they'd probably laugh in your face. Right before enslaving us all.
Still, all the rejections, spilt drinks and anxious trips to the clinic are all worth it once you find that special someone, and if you're lucky, you'll get to spend your life with them. But after a while, the coarse sands of time begin to wear us all down, and our relationships with our partners change along with that.
84-year-old Des and 83-year-old Mona Manahan from Ireland will be more aware of that fact than most of us out there flying the flag of love today. Having tied the knot more than 56 years ago, this couple knows each other more than I know the back of my hand (which is admittedly not well), but recently, Mona's been losing her eyesight.
With quivering hands and ailing vision, Mona's not been able to do her makeup the way she's used to. It's a sad fact of life that our bodies won't always work the way they do now, and it's not changed the way Des feels about Mona at all. Not one bit. He still loves her to the moon and back, and recently, he took the time to prove it to us all.
In their advanced years, Des and Mona still find time to go out and socialise, and ahead of a party, they took a trip to the department store Debenhams to help Mona pick out some makeup. They were tended to by Rosie O’Driscoll, 43, who was working the makeup counter at the time, and offered to help Mona apply hers.
Watching the makeup unfold, Des - joker that he is - thought he'd have a little fun.
“I started messing with her and I said, ‘Look, you’ve got it crooked there, you did this wrong,’ joking her,” he said to TODAY Style. “And then she just handed me the brushes and said, ‘Well, you do it.’ So I started to do a little bit with it.”
I don't know about you, but there's not a woman alive who would allow me to apply makeup, and with good reason - unless you're about to audition for the part of the Joker in a Batman film, you don't want me applying your makeup for you. But Des turned out to be not too bad at it. He enjoyed it, too - so much so, he came back for more classes, and eventually became a makeup master.
“He got lesson after lesson after lesson, and loved every minute of it,” revealed O'Driscoll, saying that Des can apply blush, lipstick and more. He's even learned which products he prefers, and plays around with different techniques. “I think he prefers me to take a step back now and let him off, let him do whatever he wants to do,” O’Driscoll said.
Eventually, Des' makeup skills caught the eye of Mario Dedicanovic, a celebrity makeup artist who's worked with the likes of Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, and he invited Des and Mona to one of his makeup classes. Above, you can see the photo from that visit.
As time goes on, Des knows that Mona will soon be fully blind, and she won't be able to gaze upon the love of her life any longer. But even as she loses her sight, Des is making sure she'll look beautiful for all of her days.
