Making all the right moves

Sometimes love is all about seizing the moment. That’s certainly the case for Bill and Donna Staeb.

When Bill saw Donna walking out of a movie theater with a friend in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, he quickly struck up a conversation. “When you see something good, you don’t let it get away,” Bill said.

He saw a buddy’s car parked outside a local pool hall and wanting to prolong their conversation, he nipped inside and asked if he could borrow the car. Then he took Donna and her friend home.

However, that seized moment slipped away. Donna was still in high school and Bill was working and in the Naval Reserve.

But he didn’t forget the high school beauty. The following year, 1949, he sat behind her in the bleachers at a football game. “It was strategic,” he admitted. “I snuck in when she wasn’t looking.”

He showed up at the post-game dances, but Donna was unimpressed. “I had a group of friends I hung out with. He wasn’t one of them.”

She was also just 16. “I didn’t realize she was that young. I was 20 and thought her dad would get out the shotgun if I asked her out,” Bil said.

Still, he kept showing up at the dances and soon they were a couple. He told her, “When you get out of school, we’ll get married.”

A week later, when he went to see her, she said, “I’m out of school. I quit. When can we get married?”

Bill said, “I was so surprised! Hell, I was 21. I wanted to get married, but not quite that quick!”

Donna said one of the few regrets she has is not finishing school. “But I just cared about him that much,” she said. “I didn’t want to wait.”

The couple married June 3, 1950. The following January, Bill received orders to report for duty. His Reserve unit had been activated because of the Korean War.

By the time he left for training, Donna was pregnant with their first child. Though she was sad to be separated from her husband, the pregnancy was happy news for her. “I was an only child,” she said. “I really wanted a big family.”

Stationed in Norfolk, Viginia, Bill got liberty three weekends in a row the month the baby was due, and hitchhiked home to Michigan to see his wife. On the fourth weekend, he shipped out to the Caribbean. That’s when their son Rick, arrived.

“I found out I was a daddy when my dad sent me a letter,” Bill recalled. “Rick was 4 months old when I saw him for the first time. He was a year old by the time I got out of the Navy.”

Times were tough for the young family. They found an apartment over a garage. “Every time the homeowner opened the garage door to get his car out, the linoleum would shake,” Bill said.

Daughter Robin arrived in 1953.

Eventually, they rented a two-bedroom home from Donna’s parents. That’s where Randy (1955) and Rod (1956) joined them. Donna’s wish for a big family was granted.

Bill worked as a draftsman in the auto industry in and around Detroit. He was restless, always looking for the next best thing. “I wanted to strike it rich,” he said. “The longest I ever stayed at one place was five years.”

To accommodate their growing brood, they bought an old fixer-upper farmhouse for $500 down. Daughter Richelle arrived in 1958.

They weren’t in the farmhouse long. Bill took a job in Sacramento. “When he sent for us, my mother, the kids and I flew down from Detroit,” Donna said. With five kids under 8, she was grateful for her mother’s help.

Donna took the frequent moves in stride. Smiling at Bill, she said, “My dear husband was always looking for a better job. I quit counting after 11 moves.”

They were in California less than a year when daughter Rory was born. A short time later, Bill took a job with Hanford in Richland.

By this time, their parents were getting older and wanted their children and grandchildren near them. Back to Michigan they went, where daughter Rhonda was born.

“We had seven kids all starting with an ‘R.’ Even our dog was named Rusty!” said Donna, laughing.

She doesn’t deny the hard work involved raising such a large family. “There were no disposable diapers,” she said. “I didn’t quit washing diapers for many, many years.”

The children grew and began to leave the nest. Their oldest son joined the Navy and was sent to Vietnam. “We were so scared,” Bill said.

Thankfully, he returned home safely.

Because she married at 16, Donna had never had a job outside the home. When her youngest was in junior high, she took her first job with the Twinings Tea Co. “I like to work,” she said. “Having an empty house was just not for me.”

Eventually, with three of their grown children living in Washington, Bill and Donna followed them out West. They lived in Everett for eight years and Donna worked at Microsoft in Bothell.

“I liked being near the water,” Donna said. “But I hated the dreary, rainy winters.”

So, they sold their home and decided to pursue Bill’s vision of a perfect retirement. “I had the bright idea to live in a fifth wheel and travel,” he said.

They spent six months on the road before landing in Rathdrum, where their son, Randy, had settled.

“I’m not very organized,” Donna said. “You have to be very organized to live in a fifth wheel!”

The couple had purchased a house in Spokane as an investment, never intending to live here. However, when the fifth wheel adventure fizzled, Donna contacted the renters and the Staebs settled on the South Hill in 1996.

Their 64 years together have often been tempestuous, but never dull.

“Our kids say, ‘You guys are always arguing!’ ” Bill said. Then he grinned. “Win or lose, I do like to argue, but she usually gets the last word.”

Though his dreams of getting rich didn’t pan out quite the way he’d hoped, he counts his six decades with Donna as worth more than gold. He’s glad he seized the moment to walk with her all those years ago.

As for Donna, while she regrets quitting school, she doesn’t regret her reason. “I’ve never met anybody that I’d consider replacing him with. I’ve always loved him and only him.”