This little old man who is volunteering across the street at PBS strolled into Fashion Denver and within the hour that he was here, he shared the story of his wife who passed away after 54 years of marriage. I went to go talk to him when he was looking at our designer Simply Delicious’s cupcake and pie necklaces.
“It’s been 377 Sundays since my wife passed away and every year I buy her a birthday present. She would like this. She loved to bake. I would buy her the donut, the pie, and the cupcake,” he said as he looked over each necklace very carefully.
“I already bought her gift for next year. It’s a golden carriage with an egg inside. It’s beautiful.”
He told me how now he bakes. He loves to bake. He made a pie with amaretto in it and just made stuffed peppers. He told me about how he met his wife at a job interview and saw that she didn’t have a ring on so he asked her out on a date. They went on their first date during the holidays and by the following Thanksgiving, they were married. He told me about their last vacation together and how they were getting ready to go on a cruise. While staying in a hotel the night before, his wife got up and went to the bathroom complaining of an ache in her side. When he followed her into the bathroom, he held onto her and she collapsed and died in his arms from a heart attack.
While telling me the stories, he had so much love and caring for his wife in his actions that it melted my heart.
He told me about his adopted grandson from Korea named Ben and how everybody wants to be his partner in school.
Harry flew for the Airforce in World War 2 and when Buckley Airforce Base found out about him, they had him come speak to the video cameras, the reporters, and the paper.
It was finally time for him to leave and I said, “Harry, have a great day!” in which he replied, “When you get to be my age, there’s no such thing as a bad day. Every day’s a great day.”