Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Grandma & Grandpa Love Article
My Grandparents were featured in their Arizona newspaper with an article about their relationship. Here is the full text:
One morning in September 1947, Robbie Hamm missed her bus. She wound up catching her husband.
Robbie, 17, was working in a factory in Beaumont, Texas. She had quit school at 14 to ease the financial burden on her family, who couldn't clothe her properly for school.
Howard Wilson, 21, who had returned from World War II and was driving an ice truck, spotted Robbie after she missed her bus to work. He can't recall how she was dressed, but she looked fine to him, and he told the owner of a grocery store just that.
"She walked by the front window and I said, 'Who in the world is that?' I remember her vividly. And then she came in the side door and got what she wanted and left."
That evening, an ice truck pulled up while Robbie sat on her front porch.
After learning her name from the grocery-store owner, Howard had found her brother and asked him to tell his sister he would be calling on her that night. Robbie's brother never passed her the message.
"My mother knew his mother, and I guess she thought he was a good boy," Robbie said. "If not, I probably would not have been able to go and get a soda with him."
Robbie had been on a few dates, but the town was small and she was shy. "I didn't know a whole lot about a whole lot of things," she said.
Robbie thought Howard talked too much, but she now figures it was a good thing or they would have seemed like two statues at that high-school football game.
Howard was enamored and, on their second date, asked Robbie to marry him. Robbie wasn't sure. Howard suggested she think it over for 30 days.
That was Sept. 17, 1947. They were wed Oct. 17, 1947.
"Getting married so soon, probably it wasn't the best thing to do . . . " Robbie said. "Well, now, no. I'm not saying that. Obviously, it was the thing to do - we've been married now more than 60 years."
Howard trained to be a plumber and later attended college and became a Baptist preacher. The couple had five children, each of whom graduated from college. They have nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
The Wilsons lived most of their years in the San Francisco Bay area, including seven on a sailboat after retirement. They moved to Mesa two years ago for health reasons.
Robbie, 78, and Howard, 81, thank God for their marriage's longevity, but they also credit an L-word: like.
"You have to really like each other," Robbie said.
"Yes, you do," Howard said. "I do like her. She's a sweet gal, and she's good to me."
Though her legs hurt at times, Robbie usually makes breakfast so Howard can sleep in rather than take his morning meal at the retirement community's dining room.
As for Howard, even if he's in the middle of a TV program, will turn to a show that Robbie wants to watch.
"And another thing that's just so special to me is that he never goes to bed without kissing me," Robbie said. "And I love that."