Love Story: Nancy and Wendell Marino

Published 8:57 pm Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Wendell Marino was born and raised in Hawaii. In 1957 he came to Wenatchee Valley College to play football. That’s when Wendell met another freshman, Nancy Whitehall of Waterville.

“We had only gone on a couple of official dates before he had to leave,” Nancy said.

Sadly, only four months after arriving in Washington, Wendell had to return to Honolulu. He was asked to report for the draft.

However, doctors in Hawaii said that Wendell could not serve because of a previous football injury.

“He got a job,” Nancy said.

Wendell and Nancy were already writing to each other. For nine months they corresponded daily.

“We really got acquainted through the letters,” Nancy said.

One day Nancy received a parcel from Wendell. Inside a ring box that had been placed inside a shoebox, was an engagement ring.

“He had mailed it,” Nancy said. “He didn’t insure it or anything. We were just lucky it got here.”

Nancy and Wendell Marino of Everett will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to San Francisco.

The couple were married Oct. 11, 1958, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Nancy and Wendell have three children and seven grandchildren.

Before getting married Nancy finished her freshman year at college and then worked for the summer. She knew she was going to Hawaii.

“Part of it was a great adventure and then the sheer stupidity of an 18-year-old,” Nancy said. “But at the time it seemed like a good thing.”

It’s not something she’d like her own grandchildren to think about doing, she said.

When Nancy went to Hawaii in 1958 it was a tropical paradise, much different than it is now, she said.

Nancy had been raised with one sister. Wendell had five sisters and two brothers and was very close to his family. It was a different lifestyle to the one she knew.

“They were in and out of each other’s homes and lives,” Nancy said. “It took a while to get used to.”

Wendell and Nancy raised their children, Wendy of Bothell, Jeff of Burlington, and Tim of Hilo, Hawaii. After Wendell’s retirement in 1991 they moved to Everett to be closer to Nancy’s family.

When they were first married Nancy and Wendell thought they knew each other through their letters.

“You really don’t know people to the extent you do living together all these years,” Nancy said. “The bad times and the good.”

Nancy describes Wendell as having a heart of gold. He has been the best husband and father these 50 years that Nancy could ever ask for.

“The best,” Nancy said. “He just the best.”

For more information on Love Story call Christina Harper at 425-339-3491 or e-mail harper@heraldnet.com.