Couple Doesn’t Let Age

Slow Them Down 

(Parents of Classmate, Jerry Achenbach)

 

m

Courtesy of The Manhattan Mercury

Jerry Wofford

m

 Staff photo by Michael Schweitzer

Dewain and Lucille Achenbach have seen most of the country in their 70 years together. Their philosophy is simple: If they want to go somewhere or do something, they do it.

m

"We’re kind of silly, but it’s the way we like things," Lucille, 89, said.

m

After years spent raising a family and time on the road as a truck driving team, the high-school sweethearts who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in June now live quietly in St. George in a house stuffed full of knickknacks and crafts they have either collected or made, The knick-knacks serve as a record of their history and their life.

m

The couple met in the mid-30s in English class at Manhattan High School. Dewain, now 90, sat across the aisle from Lucille and "we’ve been together ever since," Lucille said.

m

Dewain served in World War II and later went to school to be a chiropractor, something he said has helped him stay spry into his 90s.

m

"Chiropractic living is the reason we’re here, no doubt about it," he said.

m

 In 1957, Dewain hit the road as a trucker, hauling freight all over the country and through Canada. He spent 20 years as a truck driver and logged more than two million miles, he said.

m

For the last year he spent trucking, Lucille was by his side. Their children had grown and left the nest by 1988. They were both separate and alone.

m

"He said `Why don’t you come and go with me? You’re alone there and I’m alone here,’" Lucille said. "He said, `I don’t like that,’ and I said `I don’t like that either.’ We decided we’d just do that."

m

They spent a year in the double-sleeper truck with their poodle riding along. But the road wasn’t always smooth. Ask them about the most exciting thing that happened to them and they’ll tell you about a trip they made hauling meat in New York when their truck was hijacked. The couple, who was in their early 80s at the time, was making a run with a group of trucks for protection. Dewain and Lucille fell behind.

m

"We made a wrong turn and as I was making a u-turn, they got up on the running boards,"
Dewain said. "They both got in the cab and Lucille crawled in the sleeper.

m

Lucille said she was terrified. Their poodle silently cowered behind her in the sleeper.

m

"He was scared silly, but he wasn’t the only one," Lucille said.

m

"We we’re too," Dewain and Lucille said in unison.

m

The two men took them to another dock and said they would unload their truck for $100.

m

"We gave them the $100 and we took off," Dewain said. "We got off easy because we didn’t get our throat cut.

m

Shortly after that incident, Dewain hurt himself and couldn’t keep driving. So, in their mindset of "Why not," they bought a camper and spent three years as a snowbirds, spending winters in Arizona and the Southwest, enjoying their golden years and letting nothing stand in their way. Through all their travels and free time, their house had become a personal museum of sorts. A 4 foot long and foot tall replica of Noah’s Ark, complete with Noah and his family, several animals and a kitchen table that is set for the family took Lucille two years to crochet. Old lenses from her mother’s eyeglasses serve as frames for photos of her family in a piece Lucille calls "Through my mother’s eyes. Lucille keeps a large, white, heart-shaped pendant around her neck that holds a four-leaf clover her mother collected and pressed nearly 100 years ago.

m

"We could talk for a week about the things we’ve done,"
Dewain said.

m

But, the happy pair mostly keep to themselves, Lucille said, and that’s the way they like it.

m

"We figure we’re doing what we want to do," Lucille said.
m

"We’re happy doing what we want."

No Comments »

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website