“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.” 1 Corinthians 13
Love sometimes takes its time to find you. But when it does, it can be well worth the wait.
Just ask Joe Potenzano and Mary Elkind. Their love story took decades and now, after 64 years, they are finally getting married.
The two met in 1959 at the wedding of Joe’s sister. J0e, now 93, said they both fell in love. Mary, now 83, was the bridesmaid to Joe’s best man role.
“I say this unashamedly. I fell in love with her and she told me she fell in love with me,” he said. “What else do you want.”
The pair dated for a brief time, but life, as it often does, got in the way. Mary went on to become a professional dancer, while Joe studied engineering.
After briefly dating, the two went their separate ways as Elkind pursued a professional dance career and Potenzano studied engineering at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
I thought he was cute,” Mary said, giggling. “After the wedding, we went out, but only a few times.”
Mary had performed at Radio City Music Hall, she said. After the wedding, she went on tour with a ballet company in Europe.
Mary and Joe at a wedding. Photo from YouTube
The couple tried to make things work long-distance, but was unable to.
“I had my mind elsewhere,” Joseph recalls. “She was at Radio City making a name for herself.”
Time passed and Mary got married. Joe attended her wedding, and the pair would often see each other at family gatherings.
He got a job working on artillery shells and rocket engines. “Basically, making sure that the warheads hit the target,” Joe said.
While Mary settled into her new life and had children, Joe never managed to find that special someone.
“It was a strange thing,” he said. “It was something in life that always evaded me. I was never in the right spot in the right time. I was in the wrong place at the right time. I was pretty positive that was the way it was going to be.”
One day, Joe said he was sitting at home, alone and began thinking of Mary.
Joe and Mary hold hands. Photo from YouTube
“I was lonely (at the time), and I had very few friends left,” he said.
But I decided that being lonely was not an option I was willing to die with.”
So, Joe finally called Mary.
“I was sitting in my house one day, sitting in my sofa chair,” he said. “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.”
Mary, whose husband died nine years ago, said that when her phone rang and it was Joe, it was like the time melted away.
So when Joe asked her out, it was an easy answer for Mary.
“I’ve always cared for Joe,” she said. “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.”
Their first date was to an Irish dance troupe performance. The pair had to be secretive since there were family members that joined them.
“My hands were freezing in there,” Mary said. Joe waited for just the right moment.
“The best part was when we both had to get up,” he said. “I grabbed her by the hand and walked down the aisle. Then her niece came by and we just dropped hands. We didn’t want them to see anything because it was our first time.”
From that moment on there were countless dates, dinners and movies. Time spent talking on the phone. Until one day, Mary was visiting Joe and he brought up marriage.
“I asked her, ‘would you ever consider getting married again?’” he said. Mary’s first response: “I don’t know,” she said.
But Mary said she knew that she wanted something more than living on her own.
So she said yes. On Oct. 15, the pair will marry and then head to Cape Cod for a honeymoon. A marriage that took 64 years to take place.
“The only negative is we can’t have kids,” Joseph said. Smiling, Mary reminded him, “…we already have a godchild.”
Watch below for a look at this super sweet couple!
