GODDARD — Carolyn Weeks made the first move in the romance that set the Goddard Senior Center buzzing. She suggested that she and Gary Herrman go someplace where they could talk alone.
Then again, it was Gary who started carrying Carolyn’s tray and walking her to her car after lunch.
The two octogenarians wed last month before a crowd that included many friends from the center.
“We kind of watched the whole thing develop during Friendship Meals,” Amanda Treadwell, the center’s volunteer director, said of the pair’s relationship.
Weeks and Herrman both say they weren’t looking to start a serious relationship. Weeks lost her husband three years ago, while Herrman had been a widower for 14 years.
“No, when I met Carolyn, I wasn’t looking for a woman,” Herrman said. “I’d been single 14 years and thought that’s the way my life was going to be.”
“It was just not expected,” Weeks agreed. “I met other men there and they were really nice, but this guy was more my type, so I needed to know more about him.”
Weeks had been a regular at the center since its opening last year and a volunteer helping serve Friendship Meals there. Herrman said he accompanied some friends to one of the meals, saw Weeks and didn’t think anything about it. But on his next visit, Weeks saw him sitting alone and joined him. They started talking, and “next thing I know, we’re good friends,” Herrman said.
“I could see that he was pretty nice, and I thought he was somebody I could get acquainted with, so I kind of looked for him later one day,” Weeks said.
One day, Weeks told Herrman that she thought they needed to talk alone to get better acquainted. They crossed the street to a restaurant and talked over coffee. Another day, Weeks had a doctor’s appointment, and Herrman offered to take her.
Then there was the time Herrman walked up to the table where Weeks and a group of other center members regularly sat. “I said, ‘Are any of you available?’ They all held their hand up. Carolyn held both her hands up. I was just joking, you know.”
Still, it’s a long way from friendship and affection to marriage, or at least it can be. In this case, the courtship lasted six months. The more they talked, the more sense marriage seemed to make. They dined out regularly at favorite restaurants, including IHOP, Cracker Barrel, McAlister’s Deli and Olive Garden.
“We had similar backgrounds, and I felt comfortable with him,” Weeks said. “He was just a good friend, always a gentleman.”
And like her late husband, Herrman enjoyed the outdoors.
As he recalls, “I said I was going to go fishing one day, and she said, ‘No, you’re not. I’m going with you.’”
Weeks called the news that they planned to wed “kind of a shock to my kids. They said it’s not long enough, you’ve got to get acquainted.”
The couple was having none of it. “We’re older, you know, and time is of the essence,” Weeks said. “It was just six months, but we both had been through this before, and we were pretty sure what we wanted.”
The two did make sure that their new legal status wouldn’t affect their financial condition. “I think that’s probably the reason most people don’t get married in their 80s,” Weeks said.
The two got married at The Goddard Church on April 6. Initially planned for family, the ceremony and reception drew more than 100 people.
“I got scared all the tables were full, and we had put more tables out,” Herrman said. “We didn’t even get to have a piece of wedding cake because I was worried we were going to run out.”
“It’s amazing how people have responded,” Weeks said. “They’re all happy for us. I said we need to form a single’s club and try to get them all married off.”
Last month, Herrman was in the process of moving his things into Weeks’ home. They’re planning a honeymoon trip to the Ark — a re-creation of Noah’s Ark — in Cincinnati and will probably travel more in the future.
“We’re just doing our own thing, enjoying each other’s company,” Weeks said.
And they’re still regulars at the senior center, where a chance encounter changed their lives.
“Nobody deserves being lonely, but that’s the way I thought life was going to end up for me, but it got changed,” Herrman said. “It shows you that no matter what your age is, you can still fall in love.”
