A couple recently proved their love is still blooming 40 years on by recreating a photo they took when they first got together.

The picture is especially significant as they are posing alongside an impressive 12ft sunflower.

Paul Szewc, 61, and his wife, Sandy, also 61, met in 1982 when the latter asked the former to dance in a bar.

Then in September 1984, the loved-up couple posed beside an enormous sunflower that Paul had grown in his garden.

Now, 38 years on, the gardening enthusiasts were delighted when they grew another whopper flower and took the photo once more.

‘One of our sunflowers just so happened to shoot up again,’ says Paul, a furniture maker, from Ontario, Canada.

Paul believed flowers were the key to a woman’s heart when he first courted his now-wife.

He invited Sandy to his mum’s garden to show her the plant he’d grown from seed, which was an impressive 12ft.

Keen to woo his love, he got Sandy to stand on his shoulders and his mum, Marjorie, snapped a picture of the pair.

The couple – who now have two sons, 32-year-old Jason and 31-year-old Kyle – continued to grow sunflowers over the years and were delighted when another giant one appeared in July 2021.

So they decided to recreate the photo they took when they first met.

This time their son, Jason, snapped them in the exact position a total of four decades on.

‘I really wanted to woo her, and it clearly worked,’ Paul explains.

‘We both love gardening and sunflowers in particular – they bring back such happy memories.’

Sandy, who co-owns their furniture business, says the garden caught her attention straight away.

‘Paul lifted me onto his shoulders as if to say “look what I can do”‘, she recalls.

‘He charmed me as he didn’t have a car at the time but cycled to my work at a telecommunications company to deliver me a home-grown packed lunch.’

Health-conscious Paul enjoyed growing his own food and encouraged Sandy to get into gardening.

‘I thank the sunflowers and my healthy, home-grown food,’ Paul notes.

‘Sandy was a junk food addict before meeting me, but I sent her off to work with nutritious packed lunches and the rest is history.

‘I got her hooked on my home-grown fruit and veg.’

However, the photo has also shown how much life has changed.

In this year’s photo the pair are joined by their grandchildren – three-month-old twins, Maddie and Quinn – who are Kyle’s children.

Paul believes his love of gardening is ‘in his genes’ as his grandmother, Mary Allen, worked as an assistant for a family in Nottingham, UK before moving over to Canada in 1910.

She lived to 107 and the family owe their grandma’s longevity to a healthy organic life. Paul also says his mother’s approach to life influenced him greatly.

‘She taught me the importance of preserving food. I grow a garden so I can process a year’s supply of food in his cold cellar,’ Paul says.

‘These days with the cost of food growing your own in a garden is the way to go.

‘When my dad, Joseph died, I was 10 and my mum and I didn’t have much – except our garden.

‘I picked up a pitchfork and thought: “Well we’ve got to eat,” and that’s where my love of gardening came from – a need to.’

Paul said lockdown got him and Sandy back out in the garden after their busy lives took over.

‘As soon as lockdown hit, and we had nothing to do I was reminded of the joys of gardening,’ he says.

‘I’m so glad I re-found my love for gardening, and I hope my grandchildren will develop our green fingers too.’

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