SAEDNEWS: Joseph Potenzano, 93, who has never been married, was sitting alone on his couch in his New Jersey home about a year ago when he suddenly thought of his friend Mary Elkind—and wondered why he shouldn’t ask her to meet up.
According to Saed News’ Society section, Joseph first met Mary in 1959 at his sister’s wedding. Mary was the cousin of the groom, and both of them were bridesmaids at the ceremony. After the celebration, they went on a few dates, but their meetings never blossomed into a romantic relationship. Still, they had chatted at family gatherings over the years, and Joseph knew that Mary had been widowed in 2014.
Joseph says, “I’m at an age where very few friends remain. Almost all of them have passed away.” He never intended to remain single into his 90s, but life always threw obstacles in his way, and as he puts it, he “always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
A few weeks later, Joseph and Mary ran into each other again at a church during the baptism of a new family member. Joseph made up his mind and asked, “Mary, would you like to have a cup of coffee with me and lunch together?”
Joseph recalls that Mary looked at him in astonishment before replying, “Yes.”
For their first date, they attended an Irish dance event and held hands for a short while. Joseph notes, “We both thought to ourselves, what a wonderful feeling this is!”
Mary, 83, who had once been a professional dancer, says that until that night, she had resigned herself to spending the rest of her life with friends and following the lives of her three children and four grandchildren. “My days were filled with friends and family, but slowly I realized my nights could feel very empty,” she admits.
Over the years, she had often thought about Joseph: “Every now and then I would think about Joe. He had attended my wedding, and we always saw each other at baptisms and Christmas gatherings. I even wondered a few times what my life would have been like if I had married him.”
Now, Mary will soon find out.
Last month, Joseph proposed marriage. He recalls, “I asked her, ‘Do you think we should get married?’ and she said, ‘Why not? Let’s do it.’”
Mary adds, “I told him, at our age, if we’re going to do this, we’d better act quickly.”
And so, Joseph, a lifelong bachelor, began planning his first wedding in his tenth decade. The couple will marry on October 15 in a church where Joseph had spent his youth singing in the choir.
