Lester Nafziger is the March Resident of the Month at Fairlawn Haven Nursing Home.

Born to William and Ruth Frey Nafziger, he was one of eight children. He has many memories of growing up on a farm. Toys were scarce, but Lester remembers playing with wooden blocks, tinker toys and sharing a bicycle with eight children.

From an early age, Lester loved working with wood and building things. In his teens, Lester bought an Indian motorcycle.

In 1937, Lester met Marjorie Wyse at a Literary Society meeting at the Archbold Ladder Factory garage. They began dating.

One night, Lester took Marjorie to the Peony Festival in Van Wert on the motorcycle.

In 1938, Lester bought a Harley Davidson and in 1939, he and Edger Sauder rode them to Florida. They stretched a canvas over the two cycles and slept on the ground between them.

They came home through ice, snow, and freezing rain, but said they had fun.

Later that year, Lester sold his motorcycle, and on July 11, 1939, Lester and Marjorie were married.

They moved to a farm near Wauseon and raised their family of six children. They also lost two children: their first and last child, both were girls.

Lester had a dairy farming business. Over the years, Lester went to Alaska with Mennonite Disaster Service and to Brazil to build for the Wycliffe Translators.

In 1973, Lester began working at Sauder Manufacturing full-time. He was there for 15 years. He and Marjorie moved to their new home near Archbold.

He hand-carved on church pews, and made grandfather clocks in his woodshop in later years. He has made 35 grandfather clocks with no kits. He donated many items to sell in the Fairlawn Auctions.

Lester and Marjorie moved to a Fairlawn duplex in May 2000. When the woodworking shop was built on the Fairlawn campus, Lester donated all of his woodworking tools. They moved to Fairlawn Haven in January 2009.

Lester and Marjorie had 70 years of marriage before Marjorie died in November 2009.