Joe Schwartz Gets the Love

The Miami Herald profiles downtown legend and North Dade denizen, court reporter Joe Schwartz.

Joe Schwartz, 66,

court reporter

Miami Shores

Holding court: Tennis opened a lot of doors for me. I started at an early age, played in high school and earned a four-year scholarship to the University of Miami.

Up and at 'em: When I wake up in morning I walk from my house to the bay. It takes me 35 to 40 minutes. I clear my head and stretch when I get to the bay. In my early years I walked all the time, working downtown in the court system every day. Now I work three days a week.

Gym time: They have personal trainers to guide you at Body Preference. When they're stretching you, you're not thinking about anything else except survival. I do light weights, ab exercises and cardio, too.

Good stuff: For breakfast I have orange juice and oatmeal or cereal with a banana. That carries me to lunch. I stop by Subway for a turkey sandwich. I have dinner at Here Comes the Sun, a health restaurant. I'll have salmon or flounder, steamed vegetables, sometimes brown rice, salad. Everything there is extremely healthy.

Cancer diagnosis: When I got prostate cancer I chose radiation, which meant 10 minutes a day, five days a week, February through April.

In treatment: I met a lot of people who were depressed, lethargic. I always tried to make them laugh. After my treatments I would go to the gym, play tennis have dinner.

Gentlemen, listen: Unless you go to the doctor you don't know if you have certain diseases. Most people won't say, 'Hi. By the way, I just finished my prostate cancer treatment.' Thank God, I found out about it. Get yourself checked out. Raise the awareness. If it weren't for the wives and girlfriends who make the appointments, men wouldn't go at all. Then they'll wake up one day and and hear, `You got this serious problem. You should have come here six months ago. Now I can't help you.'

Joe is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, always pleasant and smiling, smart as a whip, handy with a bagel. Most mornings you can find him at Granny's, enjoying the oatmeal as he plans for his next tennis victory later that afternoon. He is an inspiration to many of us, it would be hard to practice downtown without him.

Kudos, Joe, for the great story, stay healthy, wealthy and wise.