Man, 93, Rekindles Romance with Woman He Met at a Wedding in 1959. Now, They’re Getting Married
Joe Potenzano's lifelong bachelor status will come to an end this October when he marries Mary Elkind, a woman he briefly dated after they met 64 years ago
Joe Potenzano and Mary Elkind are proof that love is worth the wait. The couple plans to get married to each other this fall — 64 years after they first met.
"I say this unashamedly. I fell in love with her and she told me she fell in love with me," Potenzano, 93, of Paramus, New Jersey, told ABC affiliate WABC-TV. "What else do you want."
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Potenzano and Elkind, 83, first met in 1959 at his sister's wedding, WABC-TV, Fox affiliate WNYW and NJ.com reported. Elkind was the maid of honor and Potenzano served as the best man.
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After briefly dating, the two went their separate ways as Elkind pursued a professional dance career and Potenzano studied engineering at Fairleigh Dickinson University, per NJ.com.
Elkind later married another man, and the couple raised a family in Rockland County, New York, the outlet reported. Meanwhile, Potenzano remained a bachelor.
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Throughout the years, the pair kept in touch via their families, per WNYW. Then last year, Potenzano asked Elkind, whose husband died nine years earlier, out on a date.
"I was sitting in my house one day, sitting in my sofa chair," he told WABC-TV. "And I noticed there was nobody else I could call. Everybody was gone. And I began to feel that loneliness that only comes at 90 years old."
However, after saying yes, there was still one thing to take care of.
“I said, ‘Sure!’ and then he says, 'well, I guess I’m going to need your phone number,'" Elkind recalled to NJ.com.
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They went on dinner and movie dates and called each other — and the two were at Potenzano’s house one day when he proposed to her, according to NJ.com
The couple plans to head to Cape Cod for their honeymoon after they marry this October, per the outlet.
“I’ve always cared for Joe," said Elkind. "There were times when I wondered what my life would have been like if I married Joe. So that’s what makes it easy for me."
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