Senior Living Yet Young at Heart
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You sacrifice and make changes for the person you love. When Albert Brockelman married in 2007, he left the home he loved at The Oaks, a Mosaic senior living facility where he had been the first resident in 1999, for a home with his new wife, Ruth, in California at a home he knew she loved. But to his surprise, just a few months later, she said she wanted to move to Wisconsin.
"He knew how happy I was in California and didn't for a minute think I would want to move," Ruth Brockelman said. "California is great, but Wisconsin is better. It is so beautiful. Our apartment looks out at the huge flower boxes and the beautiful big green lawn with big trees everywhere."
Both had long marriages with their first spouses -- 56 years for him and 57 years for her. He also remarried and was widowed prior to meeting Ruth through their mutual interest of online Bridge playing.
They first met in person three years ago at a Bridge tournament in Reno, Nev. Their first date found them still sitting and talking at the 4 a.m. closing time in the piano bar they visited after enjoying a dinner together.
"We just got to talking and all of a sudden it was morning," Ruth Brockelman said.
Over the next months they began spending time together at each other's homes. Rather than ask her for marriage, he gave her a ring, asking that she'd at least promise not to marry anyone else. Then, on Christmas Eve, 2007, Ruth's daughter had arranged everything for a surprise wedding for them to get married, and Albert happily went along with the plan.
Their life stories are as interesting as the story of romance that brought them together. He began life as an abandoned child. At a San Francisco orphanage, where he was found on the doorstep Easter Sunday, 1915, they named him John Easter. At age 3, the Brockelman family adopted him and he was raised in Yakima, Wash.
His first job after graduating from Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minn., was as a teacher. He remembers making $50 a month for teaching eight grades -- and being the school janitor, church organist and choir director. He went back to college to study accounting, but also worked as a gandydancer, the "lowest, meanest job you can have on the railroad," he said.
During his life, Albert Brockelman also worked as an accountant on the atomic bomb project, owned an Oldsmobile dealership in Indiana and was a million dollar roundtable representative for Aid Association for Lutherans.
Ruth Brockelman, too, has led an interesting life. At age 19 she moved from Illinois to California, married to a Marine pilot. Her professional life included being one of five owners and the vice president of Elpac, a company employing more than 300 people that made electrical units.
After living most of her life in the warmth of California, the Wisconsin winter doesn't bother her. In fact, this last year she went ice fishing for the first time, a guest of Scott Husby, The Oaks Executive Director.
The couple are happy in their new life together. Ruth is pleased with the amenities at The Oaks, such as the onsite beauty shop, and the activities they can do such as flower and vegetable gardening. They also keep active traveling and playing Bridge, both online and in tournaments.
"I would certainly recommend The Oaks to anyone who is tired of keeping up a house and cooking," Ruth said. "It is a beautiful place to live."
