The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner has shared new details about his late wife Toni Turner's passing and their relationship.

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Gerry's journey on The Golden Bachelor filmed this past summer and premiered last week on ABC, and he's hoping to find love for the second time in his life.

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Gerry, 72, had signed up to be The Golden Bachelor star several years after Toni, his high school sweetheart and wife of 43 years, died from complications caused by a bacterial infection in 2017.

According to Gerry, Toni had retired from her job as a volunteer coordinator at a regional hospital in May 2017, and then they closed on their dream lake house in Indiana on June 6 of that year.

Toni then became ill and her health continued to decline over the next couple of weeks.

On July 7, 2017, Gerry brought Toni to their local emergency room, and doctors ultimately informed them that the bacterial infection had infected Toni's kidneys and liver. Toni then passed away on July 15, 2017.

"She'd worked her whole life, getting to that spot where she deserved her time in retirement and her time of fun, and she got cheated out of it," Gerry told People in a recent interview.

"That was the thing that always bothered me."

But Gerry, who married Toni in 1972, said their life together was full of love and activity.

Going back to how the couple first met in high school, The Golden Bachelor star admitted rejection led him to his future wife.

Gerry revealed to People that he actually wanted to ask out Toni's best friend, who apparently "had absolutely no interest" in Gerry.

"I remember standing there, chatting with Toni, and talking about her best friend," Gerry said. "All of a sudden, I thought, 'Well, what the heck? This gal seems really nice and a good conversationalist.'"

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During his sophomore year, Gerry therefore asked Toni out on a date, and she accompanied him to a dance.

"Back then in Ottumwa, Iowa, which is where I lived, the big deal every Friday was a dance at the YMCA; there'd be a band and so forth," The Golden Bachelor star recalled.

"So I asked Toni out the first time to a dance at the YMCA. We pretty much dated regularly for the next four or five years."

After tying the knot in 1972, Gerry and Toni went on to welcome two daughters, Jenny and Angie. Gerry gushed about teaching his daughters how to play softball, and as a family, they'd go skiing and boating on the Mississippi River.

"We had a lot of fun with that," the retired restaurateur gushed to the magazine.

"We had a close group of friends who were boaters, all of us had young kids. We'd just tie a line onto their life jacket and tie a line onto the boat and just throw them over. They had a great time."

Gerry and Toni then became grandparents when Jenny had two kids of her own, Charlee and Payton, who are now 16 and 21-years-old, respectively.

"That was huge, more so for her than for me," The Golden Bachelor star shared of Toni becoming a grandmother.

"All of a sudden, she was starting to buy baby clothes again and starting to figure out how we could be spending long weekends or extended periods of time being babysitters for the grandkids and so forth."

Although Gerry set out to find a woman with whom to spend the rest of his life, he said his family will always honor Toni's memory -- multiple times a year.

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On the anniversary of Toni's passing every July, Gerry said he and his daughters sit down and discuss what Toni's life would look like in the present day.

"On the anniversary of her passing, Jenny and Angie and I always exchange thoughts like, 'If she was here, this would be what she would be doing today,' or 'This is what she would be interested in,'" The Golden Bachelor star explained.

And Gerry and his girls also pay tribute to Toni on Christmas every year by whipping up one of her favorite recipes in the kitchen.

"I know it sounds silly, but she was really good at making cinnamon balls at Christmas," Gerry said.

"She'd spend hours. They were delicious. So all of us, both girls and myself now, have decided that whatever we do on Christmas, we're going to make cinnamon balls. She loved Christmas; she loved decorating and doing all that stuff."

Gerry acknowledged that ending up on The Golden Bachelor proves that "fate works in strange ways."

And he added, "This is probably one of the strangest. But it's worked out."

Gerry told BachelorNation.com last month that he has no regrets from his experience on The Golden Bachelor because he was "as slow and deliberate" in his decision-making as he could possibly be.

Gerry also hinted to Entertainment Weekly that he's very happy and content with the conclusion of his season.

"This is a great day, isn't it?" Gerry said in September, suggesting he may currently be in love. "I'm so pleasantly surprised by how things ended."

When cameras began rolling on The Golden Bachelor, Gerry had a lineup of 22 beautiful and poised bachelorettes to choose from, all ranging in age from 60 through 75.

By the end of the first Rose Ceremony, Gerry narrowed down the pool of bachelorettes to only 16 women. Faith Martin had received Gerry's First Impression Rose.

Click here to read spoilers about Gerry's The Golden Bachelor season -- including his Final 2 women and Final 3 bachelorettes -- or click here to see photos and details of Gerry's 22 bachelorettes.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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