Three decades of love, family, and being together

It was the mid-1980s and Todd, then a compensation analyst at TV Guide, lamented to an HR coworker about his once-again broken heart.

She told it to him straight: He needed to stop pursuing women based solely on their looks and focus his efforts on someone who was just as beautiful inside. “You need somebody like Rose Anne,” she said.

“Like Rose Anne” was the operative phrase, as Rose Anne, an administrative assistant in the national programming department, was married to someone else.

Todd left TV Guide in 1989 to pursue a career in health-care compensation and human resources information systems. Rose Anne left in 1990 to enroll in nursing school. Both stayed in touch with Emma, their friend in HR.

Rose Anne and her first husband divorced in summer 1991. That fall, Emma asked Rose Anne if she remembered Todd from TV Guide. She did. “He was a nice looking man, and very friendly and all of that.”

“Maybe we could all go out to dinner,” Emma suggested.

Rose Anne and Todd clicked, talking and laughing together easily, so Emma was surprised when a few weeks went by without a date for just those two.

Again, she pulled no punches with Todd. “What do you mean you haven’t called her?”

“I don’t have her number,” Todd said.

Emma encouraged Rose Anne to send Todd a thank you card for dinner and include her number. He called and their friend’s work was done. Soon, they were going to dinner, concerts, and each other’s church services – she’s Catholic, he’s Lutheran.

“I got the feeling pretty quickly that this one was the keeper,” Todd said. In his car after one date, she took his hand and kissed each finger. He had never felt so cared for. “I put up a nice front of being self-assured and confident, but on the inside I was wounded and damaged,” Todd said. His father was verbally abusive, Todd said. And in 1980, he lost his best friend and confidant in a car accident. Too often, he turned to alcohol. Rose Anne was the opposite of all of that. “She was so centered, and she had a strong belief in the Lord – and I needed some of that, too.”

Their feelings grew in sync, said Rose Anne, who became a nurse case manager. “He is easygoing and he has a great laugh,” she said. “There are times when I can be too serious, and he can make me be not so serious.” One day while she was doing clinical work at Pottstown Hospital, Todd, who worked nearby, met her for lunch. She handed him a poem written after their first date – a picnic at Ridley State Park. “People had carved their initials in some of the trees. I wrote a poem to tell him that he had carved his initials in my heart.”

Todd, who is now 65, is an only child raised in Wyomissing. Rose Anne, now 70, is one of 10 children in her Newtown Square family. She loved that he took her big family and its many events in stride. He loved that her family members embraced him.

Rose Anne knew Todd was very serious about her in November 1992, when he invited her on his annual pilgrimage to his grandparents’ grave in Hazleton.

Todd then suggested they visit St. Stanislaus Church, which was nearby. Both knelt to say a prayer. When Rose Anne sat back in the pew, Todd remained kneeling.

“Then he says, ‘Will you marry me?’ and I was in shock!” Rose Anne said.

“For a couple of seconds there, I was worried she was not going to say yes,” said Todd.

“Well?” he prompted her. “Yes, of course, you silly bear,” Rose Anne replied.

They walked outside into a light snowfall and saw a statue of Saint Theresa, one of Rose Anne’s favorites. A rose was unexpectedly in bloom at the statue’s feet. It felt like a positive sign, she said.

They hadn’t set a wedding date when Todd was offered a job on Long Island. Todd wanted Rose Anne to move with him. She couldn’t unless they were married, she said. With no time to take the Catholic pre-Cana classes required for a church wedding, they chose another space they find meaningful – the Keswick Theatre. On July 9, 1993, a district justice led them through their vows. Then the newlyweds took in two of the three acts performing that night, including Don Dixon and Marti Jones, who serenaded them from the stage with “Follow You All Over the World.”

Weeks later, the couple moved to New York. “I had never left Newtown Square in my whole life, so it was a big adventure,” Rose Anne said. Six months later, they returned to Newtown Square, where they share a home they bought in 1996.

Rose Anne retired from Keystone Mercy in 2017.

In 2014, Todd left Mercy Health System after 12 years there. He spent a few more years as a consultant, then retired for good in 2020.

Concerts remain among this couple’s favorite pastimes. Among the many shows they’ve seen: Marshall Crenshaw, Matthew Sweet, Aimee Mann, the Chieftains, Rosanne Cash, Bruce Springsteen.

Todd’s love of music may be genetic – his beloved mother, Ruth, was a talented player of the piano and saxophone, among other instruments. Her advice to her son: “Don’t put something down unless you’ve heard it.” The couple lost both Ruth and Rose – Rose Anne’s mother – to COVID-19, two weeks apart in 2020.

Rose Anne and Todd leaned on each other and their faith. And they spent as much time in nature as they could – especially at their little retreat in the woods outside Sea Isle City. “There’s always something happening there,” said Todd. “We watch the birds and the flying squirrels. One year, a hummingbird built a nest in a branch we could see from a window. Another year, there were so many toads.”

In October 2022, Rose Anne was struck by a car while walking. She has been recovering in a rehab center. “I haven’t been home for five months,” she said. “It’s been tough. There are days when I’m not feeling good and I can be grumpy.”

But, as with everything, Todd makes it so much better, she adds. He visits multiple times a day. They talk about the dogs they used to have and the concerts they’ve attended. They watch TV. He brings her favorite Chinese takeout. “It just makes me happy when he’s here,” Rose Anne said.

As Rose Anne continues to recover, she and Todd are planning joyous things to do together.

They always enjoy spending time with Rose Anne’s siblings. They try to visit her brother in Sarasota, Fla., every other year. “We couldn’t go this year, but maybe this fall,” Rose Anne said.

Sea Isle is also calling. “Since we are both retired we can travel during the week, and get down to the beach on days that it’s not very crowded,” said Todd. From various Shore points, they’ve watched dolphin pods and groups of migrating butterflies.

An osprey nests not far from the couple’s own woodland spot. “I would love to sit with Todd and watch the osprey fish,” Rose Anne said.

On July 9, they will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

“It’s gone by so fast,” said Todd. “You jump off the diving board together and whatever happens, you make it through.”

“It’s been a wonderful 30 years,” said Rose Anne. “We don’t ever go to bed angry.”