For Valentine’s Day this year, Morningside at the Meadows celebrated newlyweds Bob and Linda Price with a long-awaited wedding reception. The couple were married in January but had to delay Meadows festivities due to a winter COVID outbreak, which also affected Bob’s mother Evelyn, who is a resident at Kaulbach Assisted Living.
“Honestly, everyone’s been more impressed by mom’s recovery from COVID than our new marriage and living situation,” quips Bob.
Both Bob and Linda met as residents at The Meadows, and neither imagined they were ever going to fall in love again. Both had gone through devastating experiences of losing longtime spouses. Bob, a lifelong United Methodist pastor, retired with his wife Carol to San Antonio in 2005 after spending most of his career in Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland. In San Antonio, he participated in a retired pastors group OWOP (Old Worn Out Pastors) that would regularly meet at Morningside.
After Bob’s wife Carol died, he lived alone in their house for four years. He realized he was starting to isolate, so he moved to the Meadows in December of 2018, where he discovered a community of friends. In 2020, Linda and her husband Phil, who was a Baptist pastor, moved into the Meadows. Phil was suffering from cancer and sadly died seven months later. As both Bob and Linda had experienced loss of a spouse, they bonded as friends. As their friendship grew over a shared love of food and true enjoyment of each other’s presence, they unexpectedly found themselves falling in love. Linda had been married for 22 years to Phil and Bob for 41 years to Carol, and neither thought they would ever remarry.
In September, Bob and Linda became engaged and set their wedding date for January 7, 2023, but the very week of that proposed event, Bob’s mother was hospitalized with COVID. Rather than postpone the wedding, Bob and Linda had a brief, small service at the Dellview Baptist Church with only their friends Billy Jackson and Joan Glenewinkel (who coincidentally are a couple too!) as witnesses and the Rev. Neal Abbott present.
Bob and Linda were delighted to celebrate a Valentine’s Day reception with the Meadows Community a month later, and were thrilled that Bob’s mom Evelyn was able to attend. The couple are now settling down in their new apartment on the fourth floor of Meadows Independent Living. Linda had been residing in the Cottages and Bob on the first floor of Meadows Independent Living, so both jumped at the opportunity to move into their spacious new apartment when it became available. They have a coffee table and chair from Bob’s mom, and Linda has done an amazing job decorating, according to Bob. Though they enjoyed a wonderful “Do Not Disturb” quarantined honeymoon with room service, they would someday like to go on a train honeymoon, either from San Antonio to Los Angeles or to Chicago.
