PRIOR LAKE, Minn. -- Bob Ritter was just a boy from Winnebago when he joined the Marines in 1942. The story of what happened next sounds like it could have been ripped from the pages of a book...both history and romance novel.
"The first night I was wounded on this island," says Bob as he looks through a book of old photographs and tells the story of his service.
Bob was wounded on the island of Tarawa, he earned the Purple Heart, and after he healed, was sent back to his unit. A few months later he contracted Diphtheritic Paralysis and was sent back to the states. At the same time, a young nurse named Priscilla had just joined the Navy.
"Maybe I'll get on a hospital ship, and maybe I'll go over to England or France. My dad was in France in WWI and I had it all figured out that maybe I'd get over there too, but I got as far as northern, Illinois," says Priscilla, who goes by the name Pat.
She made it to the Naval Hospital in Great Lakes, Illinois. As luck would have it, it was the very hospital Bob was sent to for recovery.
"My name got put as the bottom of the list and that put me in ward 92 and that's where he was," says Pat.
They say all is fair in war and love.
"She said to this head nurse, who I was dating, she says, 'he can put his shoes under my bed anytime!' and she got an awful look," says Bob as they both laugh at the memory.
That head nurse? Well, she got transferred two weeks later. Bob and Pat got married November 8, 1945.
"It rained like cats and dogs on our wedding day, but we've been together ever since," he says and gives her a pat on the leg.
"I think we'll stick around a little longer yet," she says in return.
That was 69 years ago. Four kids, 12 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren ago.
"I wouldn't trade it for nothing," says Bob.
It took a world war to bring them together, and after nearly seven decades, and like any good romance novel, only one thing will ever let them part.
"We've been very fortunate," she says.
"We've been blessed is right," he counters.
Bob and Pat both turned 91 this year. They still live in their own apartment at an assisted living facility in Prior Lake. What is the secret to their success?
"She's the boss for six months and I'm the boss for six months. That's why we get along so well," he jokes.
