Love Story: Couple celebrate 70, and ‘such a rewarding life’

They say the value of true love cannot be measured, but when Glenn and FloraBelle Dobbins celebrated their 70th anniversary, Sept. 15, a friend tried. He gave them a penny for every day of their marriage. That’s 25,550 pennies (not counting leap year days) and he had to go to six different banks to collect them.

The pair met in 1945 at a church camp at Twin Lakes, Idaho.

“We were playing ‘Skip to My Lou,’ ” FloraBelle recalled. “All the boys kept going ’round, and I wanted him to come back. I kept wanting the other guys to move on!”

Glenn grinned. “I was afraid of girls at the time.”

Perhaps if she’d known his profession or his career interest, she might have let him skip on by. Glenn was a farmer’s son who had a hankering to be a preacher. By the time those details became clear, FloraBelle was already smitten.

“He was so much fun,” she said.

They saw each other at youth group gatherings on Sunday evenings and on one of those evenings marriage was mentioned.

“I don’t think it was by me,” Glenn mused.

FloraBelle laughed. “Oh, yes it was!”

Whatever the circumstance of the proposal, on Sept. 15, 1946, they were married in Spokane.

“She said she’d never marry a farmer or a minister and she got both,” Glenn said. “We married on a Saturday and three days later we went down to Eugene, Oregon, and enrolled at Northwest Christian College.”

While he attended school, FloraBelle worked at the University of Oregon and took night classes at Northwest.

But in the spring of 1948 they had to put their books away and return to the Spokane area. Glenn’s father was moving and needed help on the farm he was managing.

“We planned to go back to finish school, but the Lord had different plans,” said Glenn.

Those plans included both of them working at Lakeland Village for a time, and a lot of moves – 12 times in 13 years, as Glenn worked for area farmers.

Son, Steve, arrived in 1948, followed by another son, Ken in 1950.

At the time the family was living in an old farmhouse with no indoor plumbing. And the family grew to include Karen, born in 1951 and Bryan in 1953.

The work was hard, but hard work was something both Glenn and his wife were accustomed to. FloraBelle’s mother died when she was still in high school and the teenager learned to cook for her six brothers and two sisters.

Perhaps that’s why Glenn’s mother was especially dear to her.

“I loved my mother-in-law,” said FloraBelle. “She was wonderful. The sweetest, most kind woman.”

They helped each other deal with the grueling demands of farm life.

“I was a city girl without a farming background,” FloraBelle said. “I knew it was all-consuming. I did a little bit of everything.”

That included separating the cream and washing the separator when they had dairy cows and cooking huge meals for the crew during harvest.

To supplement their income, Glenn used his tractor to help plow roads during the winters. His efforts led to his one and only jail stay.

“I ended up in jail one night,” he said, grinning. “I was on the other side of Medical Lake getting a county snowplow unstuck. It was 20 below zero most of the time. It was snowing and blowing. The jail was nice and warm, so we stayed the night and were glad to do it!”

Soon they finally settled in an old two-story farmhouse on property near Cheney. They still live on the property, but the farmhouse is long gone.

“I thought I was in heaven when we got that house with indoor plumbing and running water!” FloraBelle said.

Busy years ensued as the family participated in 4-H and FFA, raising chickens, horses, pigs and cows. One memorable year the family had 365 entries in the Spokane County Fair – one for every day of the year.

For several years, while Glenn worked the farm, FloraBelle worked the night shift at Lakeland Village. She also worked as a receptionist at Cheney Medical Center and spent several years working at the Ben Franklin store.

Glenn, 90, said he had no thoughts of retiring, but then five years ago, FloraBelle, 87, fell and suffered a broken leg. She fell the day they were supposed to start harvest. It was a bad break with a long recovery and then she fell again, shattering her pelvis and shoulder.

“I went from full-time farmer to full-time caregiver,” he said.

Despite health setbacks and giving up farming, the couple are still feeding people. Each month they make sandwiches for City Gate. Glenn’s strong arm is vital to the mixing of the sandwich spread. They’ve been part of meal crew for 17 years, making 300 sandwiches each month.

And that’s not all. Each month they also help hand out groceries and toiletries to Moody Bible School students.

“We go buy cases of eggs,” said Glenn. “Then we divide them into containers of six eggs per student. It’s a great ministry we do for the students. It’s a lot of fun!”

In fact, on their 70th anniversary they distributed groceries and supplies to 102 students before enjoying an anniversary meal with friends and family.

The ministry is especially meaningful for them since they were never able to return to Bible school as they’d hoped, though their son, Steve did become a pastor.

FloraBelle has an important job during the grocery distribution. She’s the designated hugger. After each student has collected their supplies, FloraBelle waits at the end of the line.

“I give each one of the students a hug,” she said. “Last week some of the big boys came back for a second hug.”

She said the secret to their long marriage is “a lot of give and take and a lot of praying.”

The girl who never wanted to marry a farmer said, “It’s been a hard life, a busy life, but oh, such a rewarding life.”