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Love Blooms For Couple In 90s

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By CHERYL BENTLEY

The Suncoast News

Published: June 11, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Love might not be lovelier the second time around, but it's just as sweet.

That is the conclusion of Betty Nagle, 90, and Charles Burgess, 96, as the two prepare for their wedding today at Heather Hill Healthcare Center in New Port Richey.

The two senior lovebirds are to be married by the Rev. Robert Steinke, pastor of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, while sitting in their wheelchairs.

"She's somebody to talk to, to give her my troubles," Burgess said. "I don't hold anything back."

Burgess was quick to see Nagle's potential when she moved to Heather Hill a year ago.

He became interested in her the second time he saw her.

"I thought 'She's not a bad-looking woman,'

" he recalled.

Their third meeting did the trick.

"I told her, 'I haven't known you very long, but I have a funny feeling something is happening to me.'

"

Nagle wasn't quite so charmed.

"Not me," she replied.

After all, she had married the love of her life, William Nagle, who died 50 years ago when the couple lived in New Jersey. Nagle had contented herself keeping busy with her daughter, Linda Dolding, her garden club, the PTA and Girl Scouts.

"I never found anyone to fill his shoes," she said.

Burgess thought the same way about Lola, his first wife of 71 years. Lola died June 26, 2003, Burgess said.

He had prayed for a good wife when he was a youngster growing up in Chicago, and God had responded by sending him Lola, the perfect wife, he said.

After Lola's death, Burgess became lonely.

"You don't know how it is," he said. "Five years just sitting here looking at the walls."

Burgess decided to try prayer once again. This time, he met Nagle.

The couple got to know each other during Heather Hill outings. Was he a fast worker?

Burgess smiled. "You have to be." He took her hand during a ball game two months after they met. She let him hold it a few minutes but then had to applaud the team.

"I'm in love," he told her. "Aren't you in love with me?"

"'It takes time,'" he said Nagle responded.

Burgess couldn't contain his love, though. He gave her a necklace with two golden hearts for Christmas.

"I didn't know what to think," Nagle said. "I wasn't planning to give him anything."

She made a quick trip to Wal-Mart to get Burgess a present.

Then the man who is president of the Heather Hill Resident Association began to grow on her.

"Everybody in the whole place likes him," she said.

She began to appreciate the qualities that had made Burgess a devoted husband for 71 years.

"He is one of the nicest, kindest men I have ever met."

He kissed her for the first time on New Year's Eve. A few months later, Nagle began to cry.

"Don't you know I love you?" she asked him.

Heather Hill activities director Carolyn Johnson is delighted with the couple's courtship.

"When you get people who are high functioning and alert, it can be lonely if there's no one out there at their level to talk to," she said.

The community appears to have embraced the couple, Johnson said. Skip's Florist in Holiday has donated flowers, Sweetbay Supermarket donated the cake, Romantic Creations and Designs donated a top hat and tuxedo for Burgess; and Nancy Larson of Mary Kay Cosmetics donated Nagle's makeup.

The once-reluctant Nagle couldn't be happier.

"I've had two good men," she said, and smiled. "I love Chuck."

For pictures of the couple's wedding, go to suncoastnews .com, Keyword: Nagle Burgess.

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