98-year-old and 94-year-old marry after meeting at the gym

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published 14 August 2017

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 has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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