Man Sells Blood For Love
Men Demonstrate Love In Unique Ways
by Mary Huber Buckeye Staff Writer

Ken and Becky Thatcher

Would you sell your blood for love?

Phil Short did.

In the summer of 1972, between his freshman and sophomore years at Penn State (Pa.) University, Short met Hazel "Cookie" Harriger at a Bible study near Sharon, Pa., where Cookie lived.

Phil and Cookie shared an instant attraction for each other. However, Sharon, Pa., was 180 miles from Penn State.

To make some gas money, Phil sold his blood twice a week at a "plasma center" near the university. He received five dollars each time he donated, enough so that he could visit Cookie every other weekend, including Valentine's Day.

The couple, who lives in Archbold, was engaged for a year before they got married June 30, 1973. They will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary this year.

"I knew we would get married on our second date," said Cookie.

Valentine In The Snow

People do some pretty unusual things to show their love.

Ken Thatcher, Wauseon, drew his feelings in the snow.

"About 30 years ago, I was in the Fulton County Health Center over Valentine's Day," said Becky Thatcher. "My husband, Ken, had been there all evening, and a beautiful fresh, deep snow had fallen outside.

Phil and Cookie Short

"That night I could hear a snowmobile running around outside. Later, I received a phone call from Ken to look out the window, behind what was Dr. Vogel's house.

"Well, there in the field of snow, Ken had drawn a huge heart with the snowmobile. That was the largest and most unusual valentine I ever received.

"The second and third shift employees took turns checking it out. It was very cool."

Commitments

Getting married is a common way to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Jim and Janet Wyse, Archbold, got their marriage certificate on Feb. 14, 1983. They were married March 26, 1983.

Michael and Lori Graham, who recently moved from South Carolina to rural Archbold, will celebrate their 25th anniversary on Feb. 14, 2008.

Proposing marriage is another common Valentine's Day theme. What makes the proposal uncommon is the way it's done.

Kurt and Brooke Brodbeck

Kurt Brodbeck, Cincinnati, son of Andy and Sherri, Archbold, was trying to think of a creative way to propose to his girlfriend, Brooke Stewart. Kurt and Brooke were both students at Taylor (Ind.) University.

His grandfather, Cy, had been a woodworking teacher at the former Four County Joint Vocational School, now Four County Career Center, and Andy worked at Sauder Woodworking and had built some furniture.

Kurt thought it would be great to build some furniture for his house when he got married.

He came home from college for three or four straight weekends, without Brooke knowing why. Kurt, his father, and grandfather, built a missionstyle oak table with a drawer in one end.

On Feb. 10, 2003, Andy and Sherri took the table to a restaurant in Fort Wayne, Ind., which is between Upland, Ind., where TU is, and Archbold. Kurt had prearranged to have it put in the place of one of the restaurant's tables.

It was covered with a tablecloth and condiments were placed on top, just like the other tables.

With the help of his father and grandfather, Kurt Brodbeck built a table that played an important part in his marriage proposal. The table is now the couple's dining room table.-courtesy photo

"So they bring our food," said Kurt. "I had three little bits of bowtie pasta. I'm so nervous; I'm about ready to throw up.

"Brooke's looking at me, like, why aren't you eating?

Conspirators

"The wait staff was in on it. They understood that as we were done with our meal they were going to come and start removing everything from the table, making excuses they needed to refill the salt and pepper shakers, and that they needed to change the tablecloth while we were still sitting there."

About halfway through the meal, the wait staff noticed Kurt wasn't eating.

He was "sweating bullets, realizing, man, I'm going to propose."

The wait staff started to take away the couple's food. But Brooke was still eating.

"She turns to give a look, like, what are you doing with my food?

"As they cleared off the table and left just the bare table in front of us, I said to Brooke that I really thought this was a beautiful table."

But she was still looking at the wait staff, wondering why they took her food.

"So she's paying very little attention to what I'm saying.

"I said, 'I think I really want to build a table along these lines for our house when we get married, because then we can share meals around it for the rest of our life.'

"She turned to look at me like, ok, you're starting to make a little sense, but she's still concerned about her food.

"I said, 'But if I made a table like this I'd put a drawer right here on the end, so I could put a journal in it.'"

Kurt pulled out the drawer, which contained an engagement ring.

"I got down on one knee and proposed to her in the middle of the restaurant. She's still confused about the food and not really listening to my conversation.

"She turned and said, 'How'd you know there was a drawer in this table?'"

After Kurt explained he'd built the table Brooke accepted the proposal, and they got married on Aug. 15, 2003.

And the table is now their dining room table.