98-year-old and 94-year-old marry after meeting at the gym
Gertrude Mokotoff, 98, and Alvin Mann, 94, aren't your typical newlyweds.
The pair met eight years ago at a gym in Middletown, N.Y. Their first date was at a local restaurant, and they've been together ever since. Mokotoff asked Mann to marry her — "I was tired of chasing after him," she told The New York Times' Vows section — and they tied the knot on Aug. 5. in front of family and friends. "I kept getting teased about dating a cougar," Mann said. "But the age difference never really bothered me because we just hit it off, and I wasn't about to let her go."
It's been a momentous few years for Mann — in 2016, he received his bachelor's degree in history from Mount St. Mary College in Newburgh, N.Y. — and the World War II veteran and retired businessman said he and his wife, a former biology professor and the first female mayor of Middletown, aren't going to slow down. "Age doesn't mean a damn thing to me or to Gert," he told the Times. "We don't see it as a barrier. We still do what we want to do in life."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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