Brotherly loves lasting

Lasting marriages run in the Fels family. In November, Gene and Evelyn “Evie” Fels celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary. Gene’s brother Wilbert “Joe” Fels and his wife, Nora, celebrated their 64th anniversary in May.

A festive feeling permeated Gene and Evie’s Spokane Valley home when the two couples met to discuss their enduring relationships. “We have a party going on!” Nora said.

Indeed, the Felses have much to celebrate. Gene and Joe, both World War II veterans, grew up in a large family in the Chelan, Wash., area. Both men vividly recall the first time they met their brides.

Gene, 85, said, “There was this new girl in town who worked at the café. The fellas said she wouldn’t go out with anyone – no one could date her.”

Instead of backing away from the challenge, Gene checked out the situation and the elusive Evie. He promptly bet his friends $5 that he could get a date with the beautiful waitress.

“I don’t remember how many times he asked me out,” Evie said.

Gene admitted his persistence might have been tinged with desperation. “I had to get her to go out with me,” he said. “I didn’t have $5 to pay the bet!”

When Evie finally relented, the two quickly became inseparable. “I must have impressed her,” Gene asserted. “I’ve kept her 64 years.”

However, World War II intruded into the couple’s blossoming romance. When asked which branch of the service he joined, Gene replied, “I didn’t join nothing! They took me in 1943.” As an 18-year-old high school student, he received a three-month deferment so he could graduate. Then he was sent straight to Army boot camp and on to combat in North Africa and Italy.

Joe and Nora’s romance also began unconventionally. “I pushed her in the lake,” said Joe, 84. But he said he simply couldn’t resist the temptation. “Well, she kept standing right in front of me,” he explained.

Nora gave him playful pat. “I was having my swimming lessons,” she said. Fortunately, she’d learned enough to stay afloat after her abrupt introduction to Joe.

He certainly got her attention, and she began walking her dog past the Felses’ home almost every day. Joe and his brothers would whistle appreciatively as she strode by, and soon enough she and Joe were a couple.

When Joe received his draft notice, he wasn’t allowed to finish high school like his older brother. He had to report immediately to Farragut Naval Training Center and from there was sent to San Pedro, Calif. Having seen Gene and Evie separated by war, he was determined to marry Nora before he shipped out.

He secured a 72-hour pass and told Nora to make wedding plans. In the excitement of his leave and upcoming nuptials, however, Joe lost his wallet. He called his intended from San Pedro and she wired him money for a plane ticket. Joe arrived in Seattle and caught a bus for Chelan. Again, bad luck intervened. The bus got caught in a freak May snowstorm. “I called my brother, Wes,” Joe said. “He came and got me.”

They married on May 14, 1945. After a one-day honeymoon, Joe had to return to base and then shipped out to the Pacific. “I was fortunate,” he said. “I went through 11 major engagements and never got a scratch.”

Gene wasn’t so lucky. A small box, tucked away in a cabinet in his living room, contains his Purple Heart medal. “I got blowed out of my foxhole,” he said with a shrug. “A mortar shell threw me 30 feet into a rock pile. I broke my jaw.”

He grew quiet. “Half of my company was lost on that hill in Italy that day.”

After a monthlong hospital stay, Gene returned to the battlefield.

Evie’s letters were his lifeline to a world he hoped he’d see again. Gene remembered a valentine he opened in a foxhole. He’d unfolded the large card, grabbed a pen and filled the back side with a long letter to his love. Evie didn’t know what to think when the card she’d sent returned to her mailbox until she discovered her sweetheart’s letter.

They married upon his discharge from the Army in November 1945.

After the war, both brothers began careers in automotive repair. When Joe and Nora moved to Spokane Valley, Joe said, “I talked Gene into coming over here.” He laughed. “Then we moved to Colville!” They raised their two daughters there but eventually returned to Spokane Valley, settling less than a mile away from Gene and Evie.

Gene and Evie still live in the home where they raised their three children. Purchased in 1957, it’s filled with happy memories for them.

And while laughter filled the room as the couples reminisced, things haven’t been easy for them. At age 70, Nora was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, a degenerative nervous system disorder. Evie suffers from dementia.

The brothers are now caregivers for the women who spent so many years caring for them. “Now it’s his turn to do the cooking,” Nora said with a smile.

As the couples pondered the secrets to marital longevity, the answer grew clear for Evie. She reached out and laid her hand on her husband’s cheek. “He’s a gem,” she said.

Joe agreed that choosing well is important but added, “If you communicate and work things out between you, there’s nothing you can’t solve.”

“Maybe we’d better start doing that,” Evie said. And then she grinned.

Once again, laughter filled the room. With 128 years of marriage between them, the Fels family, by anyone’s standards, is doing just fine.