(Editor’s note: The following was written and submitted by Sartell resident Betty (nee Smelter) Swedziak, 84. She submitted the story after the Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleader requested readers send in their love stories to share with others for this upcoming Valentine’s Day.)
by Betty Swedziak
contributed story
When I was about 10 years old, my family moved from our farm near Gilman to a place southwest of Morrill in Morrison County. We joined St. Joseph Church in Morrill, and I would sit in front with all of the other children on Sundays – boys on the left, girls on the right. Don and a few of his friends always sat up there too. The first time he saw me walk to the front (he didn’t even know me), he said to his friends, “That’s the girl I’m going to marry.” (I had long curls to my waist.)
Time went on and he went into the Army, was discharged and then worked on local farms baling hay and harvesting wheat. I was 16 by then and dating. He came along, and my life changed forever. We were married in June when I was 18 years old, and that was the best thing I ever did in my life.
Don was kind, understanding and always generous – a man of integrity and truth. He was so good to me. There was never a birthday, anniversary, Easter, Mother’s Day, Christmas or Valentine’s Day he did not gift me with something beautiful. Early in the morning one Valentine’s Day, he had to leave on a business trip and I was feeling so bad because this would be the first Valentine’s without a gift. I was sure he might forget. Before noon there was a knock at the door, and I was delivered a very large beautiful bouquet of flowers with a note expressing his love. He remembered!
Life went on, and in our later years I asked him if he was afraid to die.
“No,” he answered, “But I worry about who will take care of you.”
Don passed away shortly after that one day in September 2015.
We were married 65 years and three months. It was a wonderful life!
Betty Smelter and Don Swedziak enjoyed 65 years of happily married life. Don died in 2015. They were married in St. Joseph Catholic Church in Morrill, Morrison County.
After decades of marriage, Don and Betty Swedziak continued to have “a wonderful life!,” as Betty described it in a Valentine memory of her life with her husband.
