Ralph Wellons in Retirement

My grandfather retired from Delco-Remy when he turned 65 as almost everyone did back then. This was just a few weeks before my grandmother died. Despite not getting to enjoy retirement with my grandmother, he lived life to the fullest in retirement. He actually set a great example for the rest of us.

My grandparents had travelled to Europe and Scandinavia a few times before she died. They always had pictures made into Kodak slides and put on a slide show to share their trip with the family afterwards. I don’t know if the slides survived.My grandfather actually served as a tour guide for several of these trips after my grandmother passed. Imagine a guy with a 7th grade education, who had skills but no formal education, not only traveling with a tour group but leading the group! He also led many of the in-state trips taken by senior citizens. I imagine he was “playing the field” and the tour guide couldn’t hurt when trying to meet the ladies.

But he eventually met “the lady” and they had a wonderful relationship for about 20 years. Her name was Margie Hoffman and she was a widow who still lived on her farm west of Anderson. Margie was a wonderful and fun person whom I got to meet at Christmas when we came home from Florida. Margie and my grandfather seemingly went out for dinner or a dinner show, often out of town, every night. They spent time together every day, but he always kept his place (the single-wide mobile home) and they never moved in together or considered marriage.  Days were spent at her place. Besides her companionship and a few home cooked lunches, he tooled around the property and it gave him something to do. I doubt if she ever saw the mobile home.

I never met Margie’s family, but always wondered if they agreed that the relationship between my grandfather and Margie was a wonderful thing. (Note: One clue that they did is that my grandfather is listed along with her husband and other family members who passed before her. He was described as her “special friend”.) Margie survived my grandfather, but visited him when he became ill with a nervous condition and had to move into my parents house so that mom could nurse him back to health. Mom’s care and the help from psychiatric doctors at St. John’s hospital put him back on his feet. He later developed cancer and lived with my Uncle Bob at the time of his death. Margie stuck with him to the end.