A hospital in Cleburne offers free exercise classes for seniors - and those classes did "something good" for the hearts of two people taking them.
The free senior exercise class notice posted by Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne encourages senior citizens to attend and "find your perfect fit!"
Widowers Joe Craig, 73, and Jill Goodgion, 71, found a little something extra - their perfect match.
It started with a church fellowship event when Joe took the only empty seat which happened to be next to Jill. Jill talked about her exercise class. Joe talked about the challenges in meeting new people. Jill invited him to class and he decided to give it a try.
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Here's the rest of the story from Texas Health Cleburne:
"The first two days that I went to the exercise class, she wasn't there, so it was just me and 25 women. No pressure," Joe recalled, laughing. "I talked to some of them, and they have been doing this for 10 years. They're jumping all over the place and I'm trying to keep up."
By his third class, Jill was back, and before long, the two were regularly talking and sometimes going to lunch together after class.
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Both insisted it would go no further.
"I said I would not get married again and she said she was happy with her single life, and I respected that," Joe said. "So, it was just like we were going to be pals and go to lunch and maybe catch a movie or something… We started hanging out more and more and, all of a sudden, it turned into more than pals."
Like the plot of any good Hallmark movie, the two initially tried to resist their feelings.
"I said, 'OK, let's decide to stay away from each other for a period and see how we feel,'" Joe remembered. "We did that like three times. It never worked."
So, they gave in and started dating.
"We would talk for hours. I kept looking for red flags, she kept looking for red flags, but we were so compatible," Joe said.
Months of stretching and lifting weights led to a friendship that had blossomed into a romance.
Fitness instructor Perla Dennis was among those who suspected the couple had found something beyond health benefits.
"I could tell that there was something more than just friendship," Dennis said in a news release. "I thought, 'There's something going on with these two.'
She was right!
Joe and Jill tied the knot last month and credit exercise class for strengthening their bond.
To learn more about the senior exercise classes, contact Texas Health Cleburne Community Outreach at 817-556-5479.
