A Bellerose couple says yoga and exercise helps keep them young at heart, even after 72 years of marriage. NY1's Clodagh McGowan filed the following report.
Hank and Ronnie Arond of Bellerose start many of their mornings hand in hand, walking into the Cross Island YMCA to exercise.
The couple says it's their own version of the fountain of youth.
"I'm going to be 92. I've never known anybody 92, and I really do not know how to behave," Ronnie Arond said jokingly.
Ronnie teaches yoga classes twice a week to people half her age.
Her husband Hank introduced her to yoga more than 20 years ago after he took a class at the YMCA.
"Yoga means so much to her personally. It's part of her life," Hank Arond said.
The World War II veterans - Hank was in the Army and Ronnie was an Army nurse - started their life together in 1943. At the time, Hank was dating Ronnie's friend, and Ronnie was on the same double date with another person.
"It took everything I had to say, 'Do you happen to have Ronnie's phone number?' And [my date] gave it to me," Hank said.
The lovebirds married exactly one year after their first date on March 4, 1944. Seventy-two years later, they're still as happy as the day the met.
"The secret is that every time I make a mistake, he has to apologize," Ronnie said.
Beyond the jokes and laughter, the pair knows their bond is unbreakable.
"We're very aware that what we have is so special," Ronnie said.
“You know, I say it's hard to stay old," Hank said. "So we got to keep working at it."
Fitness is definitely one thing they both want to keep working on together.
"One day, I was walking out of here and my friend was walking in, right at the door, and he said 'How ya feeling?' I said, 'Better than when I came in.' That should be the Y's mantra," Hank said.
As for the couple's mantra, it is to support each other and, no matter what, don't be afraid to laugh.