Over the last couple of months one of the most asked questions is, "How are Joe and Donna?" Well, that's a long story. How much time do you have?
Back in the summer of 1955, Joe and Donna were working at Peterson's (forerunner of Von Maur) Department store in downtown Davenport. Joe had just finished Theology III of seminary. Donna was engaged to be married in three weeks. Joe said, "I was a miserable misfit" in the seminary. As for Donna, she says, "I was just not happy about getting married."
After work one night, Donna invited Joe out for a pizza. Joe says, "I'd never had pizza." As they said, their goodbyes that night, Joe knew his seminary days were over. Donna went home and told her father that she was calling off the wedding. On June 30, 1956, Donna and her dad and Joe's two aunts drove to Fort Bliss, Texas where Joe was stationed to get married.
Joe accepted his first foreign language teaching job at the high school in Calamus, Iowa. In 1961, Joe went to work at West High School. In the meantime, Donna became a TV personality on the local broadcast of
Romper Room
where she played the part of a teacher of four year old children. Eventually, Donna and Joe had three children, Jenny, Tony, and Becca.
When Donna and Joe make commitments, they keep them. Donna faithfully served meals for many years on Fridays at McAnthony Window. After 57 years, Joe retired from teaching this past school year. His teaching career included: 1958-60 - Calamus High School, 1961-1985 - West High School, 1985-1993 - North High School, 1993-97 break after heart surgery, and 1997-2019 - Davenport Central High School.
Several years ago, Sister Judy asked Joe if he would be interested in teaching the weekly Bible study. With Joe's background in languages, especially Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he has been a natural at helping students understand the context of scripture and think through its deeper meanings. It is not uncommon to walk by the Bible study on any given Thursday morning and see upwards of 30 people (including those from other parishes and denominations) listening to Joe and discussing the upcoming Sunday's Mass readings. Both he and Donna are "students of our faith."
Passionate about language, Joe says that the first 400 words in the English language are rooted in German and beyond that most words we use everyday are rooted in Latin and Greek. For him, understanding the meaning of the words we express makes us better communicators.
Reflecting on their current situation as residents of Ridgecrest Village in north Davenport, Joe laments "this is not our home. We moved from the place we'd lived for 61 years." Right now each of them is living in separate rooms as they wait for a place to open up. Whether they are literally in the same room or not, we don't think its possible separate these two because their "place" is in the heart - since that first pizza.
For those of you who have been asking about them, Joe and Donna say, "Thank you for all of your prayers and abiding concern!"
