Together in faith
When it comes to true love, having a mom who likes to dance is a definite plus. So is having a tape of your pastor’s Sunday sermon. At least it was for North Side resident Charlea Schwartz.
Charlea was a widow with two teens, living near her parents in Chula Vista, Calif. Her mom, Charlotte, had traveled to Spokane to visit friends.
The friends decided to go dancing one night and asked an acquaintance, Bruce Schwartz, to be their guest’s dance partner. He agreed.
Impressed by his strong Christian faith, Charlotte said, “You need to meet my daughter.” Bruce had been divorced for 12 years and wanted to remarry, on one condition … that his new wife would share his faith. “Have her send me a tape of her church service,” he said.
When Charlotte returned to Chula Vista, she told her daughter, “I met this guy. He’s so nice. If you met him and ended up getting married, I wouldn’t mind if you moved to Spokane.”
Sometimes, in the case of true love, subtlety isn’t necessary.
“I was so surprised,” Charlea recalled. But her mother’s description of Bruce intrigued her “So, I got a tape from a Sunday service and sent it to Spokane with a letter.”
“It was a very interesting letter,” Bruce said. The couple started corresponding. Letters turned to phone calls.
“Once we started talking,” Bruce said, “I just knew.”
He traveled to Chula Vista to meet Charlea’s children, Melissa and Jeffrey. Bruce stayed with Charlea’s parents during his visit, and the couple enjoyed their time together. They said those few days felt like a brand new beginning, and they both wondered where their budding relationship was headed.
“The night before I was supposed to leave, I didn’t want to go,” Bruce recalled. “I said, ‘When the time is right, will you marry me?’ ” Charlea said “yes,” and long distance wedding plans ensued. She traveled to Spokane to meet Bruce’s grown children.
“My kids just loved her,” Bruce said.
After agonizing about where to live, Bruce felt he should join Charlea in California. He packed up and moved to Chula Vista, and the couple were married in Charlea’s backyard on her 42nd birthday, Aug. 7, 1992.
The newlyweds faced some challenges. Charlea’s son, Jeffrey, suffers from rubella syndrome and is visually, mentally and hearing impaired. Because of his needs, the couple weren’t able to spend much time alone.
However, Charlea said, “No matter how we felt or whatever disagreements we had, we knew the Lord had put us together.”
After 18 months the couple decided to move to Spokane. It was a difficult decision for Charlea, but she had her mother’s blessing before she’d even met Bruce.
As the couple approach their 15th wedding anniversary, they feel their shared faith in God and their commitment to each other has helped them weather the challenges of making a life together.
Jeffrey has recently moved to his own assisted living apartment and is thriving, so Bruce and Charlea are more like newlyweds now than at the time of their wedding.
Bruce said with tears in his eyes, “I believe when you take care of someone like Jeffrey, God blesses you.”
Their wedding invitation contained this Scripture, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true there is life and joy,” (Proverbs 13:12 LB)