Five decades of the life they always wanted

Lynn was 13 when her mother died of cancer and she moved in with her aunt and grandmother in Feltonville. Joe, then 15, was their paperboy – a job he took to help his mother make ends meet.

Lynn and Joe became friends. Three years later, Lynn knew she wanted to be more than friends. “He was just a wonderful person, and we got along so well,” she said.

Joe still delivered the Evening Bulletin, the Daily News, and The Inquirer, but he had also taken a second job assisting a neighborhood veterinarian, which included walking the vet’s dog, Prince. Lynn wasn’t sure if Joe wanted to date her, too, but she made sure he had the opportunity to ask.

“He had a certain walking route with the dog, and I left the house to make sure I was at the corner of Courtland and Rising Sun when he walked by.”

One day in the mid-1960s, Joe asked her. “She was a good lookin’ girl,” he said.

They were an item for three months. Then they broke up.

Lynn met someone else, and Joe did, too. Those romantic relationships grew serious, but Lynn and Joe remained friends – both were part of the same circle from the neighborhood. Four years passed and both were single again. Before long, their old feelings for each other resurfaced and in the early 1970s, they started dating for the second time. This time, it stuck.

In July 1972, Joe picked Lynn up for a date. “I asked Lynnie to marry me right in front of her sister’s house, where she was then living,” he said. “I was in love with him, and I said yes,” Lynn said.

A couple of months later on Sept. 16, they were wed at St. Henry’s Church in Philadelphia. Joe’s brother and sister-in-law threw them a party at their house in Beverly, N.J. The couple invited 35 people, but 75 showed up. The buffet and cake were stretched. “There was a lot of fun, a lot of dancing, and a lot of drinking,” Joe said. “Our friend Dennis took the pictures.”

“Eight couples came back to our apartment with us afterward and the party continued until 6 a.m.,” Lynn remembered. “We had no money to go away. But Sunday we got up and Joe went to play football with the guys from his work.”

A hard tackle left Joe, the quarterback, with broken ribs. “I was the one who had to drive him to the hospital,” said Lynn. “I’ve never let him forget it.”

A little more than a year later, daughter Kristina was born. That same year, Joe’s mother, Marie, was diagnosed with cancer. She moved in with Joe and Lynn, and Lynn took care of her and their daughter while Joe worked his job and all the overtime he could get at Leeds & Northrup, where he was a painter for 27 years.

Marie died in 1974. The couple also helped care for Joe’s late father, James, for three months at a time – James split his time among his four children’s homes – until 1978, when he moved to a nursing home.

Later that same year, the couple welcomed their second daughter, Kellie Jo. That was also the year the family moved to Lynn and Joe’s home in West Norriton.

Weekends were often scheduled around Joe’s football and baseball games. The players and their families went out for pizza or fast food afterward. When their daughters got older, Kristina played softball and her games became family events, too. In the summertime, Joe’s company provided cheap tickets to Dorney Park, and the couple and their friends would pack up all the kids and a picnic and go.

Their daughters grew up. Kristina married Kevin and they have three children: Joey, Alex, and Katelynn. Kellie Jo married Augustine and they have four children: twins Gianna and Mason, Maddie, and Grayson.

Lynn and Joe’s house is where everyone gathers for holidays and birthdays, and, in the summer, swimming, barbecue, and the tossing of footballs, baseballs, or Frisbees.

Lynn and Joe follow the “never go to bed mad” rule. Mostly, their conflicts have been mild disagreements. “We compromise – the person who cares the least just gives in,” Joe said with a laugh.

The highest hurdle they had to clear was stress over how the bills were going to get paid when Joe’s company went on strike. His only income then came from making phone calls for the union and washing dishes at a racket club. Lynn took on a weekend job with a caterer – a job she ended up holding for 30 years.

They were determined to keep their household together, and fill it with patience, understanding, and love, Lynn said. “I think our childhood experiences really motivate us.

“I lived with my aunt and grandmother. They clothed me and put a roof over my head, but my aunt and I were like vinegar and oil – we wouldn’t mix. She threw me out many times, which is why I went to live with my sister.”

Joe and his siblings all worked multiple jobs as teenagers because his father, who had an alcohol problem, didn’t work.

Lynn, now 70, retired from her weekend catering job in 2014. She watched her grandchildren regularly when they were small, but when the youngest no longer needed it, she found herself with extra time and took a job in the beer garden of the local Giant, which she loves.

After Leeds & Northrup, Joe, now 72, worked in construction, then spent about a decade before his retirement installing kitchens and bathrooms for a construction firm. In 2001, he went to the company picnic solo because Lynn had to work. When she returned home, he told her they had won a trip to Jamaica in the raffle. He planned to sell the tickets for cash. “Oh no, no, no,” Lynn said. “We’re going!”

They consider that trip to Montego Bay their delayed honeymoon.

The big wedding reception they never had came for their 25th anniversary, when their daughters surprised them with a reception for 125 at the Skippack Fire Company. “There was dancing, food, an open bar. It was amazing” said Lynn.

Their family surprised them in a big way again with a celebratory dinner at King of Prussia’s Fogo de Chão Brazilian steakhouse to mark their 50th wedding anniversary, on Sept. 16, 2022.

“I love everything about her,” Joe said. “She has a big heart, and she cares for our kids and grandkids like nothing else.”

“Joe’s my rock,” said Lynn. “He’s always there no matter what. We’ve been through so much, but I can always count on him.”