MEL TOADVINE Gloria Lynn Yuhnke and Ralph Edward Boettger were wed on Friday at the Fountaincrest.

For the first time ever, there has been a wedding at Fountaincrest, an independent living community at 1230 Taylor Lane.

The groom is a resident of the complex while his bride is the mother of one of Fountaincrest’s employees, Debbie Whiteaker, the community’s activity director. They met at times when Whiteaker brought her mother to Fountaincrest for visits.

The groom is 94-year-old Ralph Boettger and his new bride is Gloria Yuhnke, who is 77. Boettger laughed and said, “I really know how to pick them.”

Ralph and Gloria stood before a large assembling of guests last Friday and said their vows before Pastor Larry Gutridge, who officiated at the wedding.

Gloria has been a widow for 60 years and had six children. Her daughter, Debbie lives in Lehigh.

MEL TOADVINE With Gloria Yuhnke and Ralph Boettger, the couple who were married on Friday, are Ralph D. Boettger, right, and Debbie Whiteaker. Debbie Whiteaker is the daughter of the bride and is also the activity director at Fountaincrest, and Ralph D. Boettgeris the son of the groom.

“I would bring her to work with me whenever she came down from up north. She enjoyed coming here to Fountaincrest when there was snow up there,” she laughed.

Between the newlyweds, they have 122 years of marriage to their former spouses and they now share a large array of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, some who were at the wedding at Fountaincrest on Friday.

Boettger said one day last November, that he was on his way out of the dining room at Fountaincrest when he came face to face with Gloria, and without hesitation, Ralph said he stepped up to Gloria and gave her a kiss.

Laughing as the couple talked about it before the wedding, Gloria didn’t drop the bowl of soup she was holding, nor did she throw it at him.

Ralph said not a word was spoken and he left quickly, embarrassed by his actions. He is a widower, who was married 62 years.

MEL TOADVINE Earlier last week, Ralph Edward Boettger practiced singing to his bride-to-be. Following the wedding Friday, he sang “Autumn Leaves” to his new wife.

“I planned an apology but the opportunity never came because Gloria returned to her home in the Buffalo, N.Y., area soon after staying down here with her daughter.

But on Jan. 19, Gloria returned for a two-month stay.

Ralph said that when he met her in the lobby of Fountaincrest, they embraced and this time they shared a kiss. From that moment on, Gloria and Ralph met every day on the lanai, on the glider, and at various activities at Fountaincrest, talking, enjoying each other, and it became what they called a mutual courtship.

It was on Valentine’s Day when Ralph went to Gloria and said that he had a very important question to ask her.

“Will you be my Valentine?” he asked, and without hesitation, Gloria’s response was “yes.”

MEL TOADVINE A kiss for the bride-to-be before Gloria Lynn Yuhnke and Ralph E. Boettger were married.

So, in Ralph words, they kissed, right at the entrance of the activity room and he said this was the defining moment when they both knew that they were meant for each other.

Smiling, the couple said they soon found a secret place where they met every day, and the courtship turned into something Ralph said was love.

It was during one of these secret get-togethers that Ralph asked Gloria to marry him and she said yes before leaving to return home to upper New York State on March 18.

Missing the woman he had fallen in love with, Ralph flew to Ithaca in May, to attend the wedding of his granddaughter, Allison Boettger, and since Ithaca is only 160 miles from Gloria’s home in Orchard Park, just outside Buffalo, Ralph’s son, who bears the same name but with a “D” as the middle initial, took his father there and Gloria and Ralph spent two weeks together after a separation of two months.

As happy things come to be, their love blossomed, the couple agreed, and through daily devotion they said they sought and found God’s blessing on their wedding this past week.

It was while they were together up north that they came up with the time of the wedding and they started making plans.

Fountaincrest, a beautiful community for seniors, will be their future home. Ralph said he has moved out of his apartment and they have redecorated a larger one for the newlyweds.

The couple was married near the front entrance on a dais. They faced the large dining area and side areas where guests could sit and stand during the ceremony.

Following the cutting of the cake, both hands of each one being used, there was a celebration and the couple was giving a great applause after Pastor Gutridge pronounced them man and wife.

“We bought some new furniture for the new unit,” Gloria said, “and I brought a few things as he did.”

Gloria wore a beautiful cream-colored dress and her husband wore a tuxedo and bragged about it, too.

“It’s the same one I wore 30 years ago and it still fits,” he laughed.

Gary Whiteaker, Gloria’s son-in-law, gave her away in marriage. His wife, the activity director, laughed and said he had given three of their daughters away in marriage so he was used to it.

The couple plans to take a week-long honeymoon in Lehigh, but they won’t say where. And they plan a trip to Niagara Falls but they smiled and said they had no plans to ride over the falls in a barrel.

“Just getting married to each other is the fun of my life,” Ralph said and Gloria smiled.

During an interview prior to the wedding, Ralph even sang to this bride, something he did again on Friday afternoon in front of their friends and guests.

Sally Carmean, Fountaincrest’s executive director, and office manager Ann Marie De Marco said they were happy for the couple.

“They’re a great couple and we love them,” Teresa Cancel, the sales director at Fountaincrest, said.