Like many people, Emily and Dennis (who want to keep their surnames private) enjoy keeping fit by jogging through the streets in their local town.
What’s unusual about the married couple’s hobby is that Emily is blind- meaning she relies on husband Dennis to guide her during their runs in their home town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The couple met when they attended university in the town and, through mutual friends, Dennis volunteered to read for Emily.
When they met, Emily was in the final year of her studies and was taking up a physical education class- where she had fallen in love with exercise.
Soon she was convincing Dennis to join her running on the track.
She told the local student newspaper: ‘I got him to go out running, which was not his thing… we just started gradually. We’d go on the track — most of the time at the end of the day, no big deal. I was not very popular when I got him to go in the morning sometimes.’
‘This is just part of our normal routine… I guess people that have been around here a long time get used to seeing us, but it’s so normal to us we don’t think anything about it.’
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Local student Hannah Wood, who has spotted them out and about, says: ‘I just think it’s really sweet that they can find things to do together and stay active… I just think it’s so cool that they have that quality time and shared interest.’
The couple- who have been married for 32 years- are surprised that people have noticed them on their jogs and also noted their amazing devotion to one another.
Dennis says: ‘We don’t think there’s anything particularly remarkable about it. I guess I’m glad that somebody else does.’
Dennis says he loves Emily’s ‘fearlessness’ and how she doesn’t let her disability hold her back.
Emily says: ‘It’s just part of me. I don’t resent it.’
Emily has been blind for most of her life and doctors have been unable to determine the cause of her blindness.
She continues: ‘You just have to depend on people, and sometimes that’s not always easy because your agenda is not my agenda.’
Emily says she feels safer when she’s jogging with her husband.
‘I do feel more secure. There are a lot more cracks in the sidewalk and stuff over the years that one needs to be careful about… I’ve fallen a few times- never broken anything- even hanging on to him.’
How amazing and inspirational!