AVON, Ohio — A Northeast Ohio man is giving back to the senior living center that gave comfort to his wife in her final hours.
Don Roth had his love, Virginia, by his side for more than 60 years. The two got married, settled in Elyria, were elementary school teachers and had two children.
“We met on a New Year’s Eve Party 1958,” he said. “It was kind of a blind date.”
She passed away in March 2022.
But she is still by his side, and still with him. He wears her engagement ring as a necklace and brings two lawn chairs every time he goes to visit the cemetery where she is laid to rest, one for her and one for him.
“I’ve been visiting her grave twice a day, every day since she passed away,” he said.
Once a week, after his morning visit to Virginia’s gravesite, the 86-year-old heads to Avon to visit his friends at St. Mary of the Woods Senior Community Center.
“When he started coming in again after she passed, we were so excited,” said Robin Hanna. “He’s definitely one of our favorites.”
Hanna is the enrichment and activity director at the center. He stops by to say hi, catch up and drop off tomatoes from his garden.
“I have a tremendous amount of tomatoes, an abundance really,” he said.
When Virginia got sick, she needed assistance, so she and Don decided it would be best to move into St. Mary’s.
“He would come to visit her and he ended up moving into assisted living, just for her,” said Hanna.
When Virginia first entered the facility, it was the peak of COVID, so Don couldn’t visit often.
“Yeah, I had to just talk to her through the window or on the phone,” he said.
After COVID restrictions eased up, Roth decided to move in, too.
“So I could visit any time, yes,” he said. “That’s the only reason I was here, was for her.”
During the year he lived here, Roth made friends with just about everyone, including Hanna.
“He’s like family to us,” she said. “He would have to walk by our office every day to go see her and he would pop in just to say hello or bring us treats. He just made everybody feel special, doesn’t matter who you were, he’d stop and say hello.”
When Virginia passed away, Roth moved out and back into their Elyria home, but he didn’t forget about the way his Virginia was treated and the connections he made.
“If I can be as kind to them as they were to me, I would be satisfied,” said Roth.
So, every week he delivers tomatoes from his garden to staff members and friends.
“It’s like a second home out here, really,” he said. “I can’t slip pass the greeters, so they get tomatoes, too. I also don’t forget the ones who prepared my meals.”
His tomato delivery shows that once you’ve been impacted by a great love, or shown kindness in a tough time, you never forget it. It grows and you want to share it, just like a garden of tomatoes.
“It’s his way of giving back, I think, to us,” said Hanna.
