STATE CENTER — Seventy-five years — over 27,375 days together.

Ruth Damman Frohwein, 92, and Raymond Frohwein, 94, of State Center have experienced practically every joy and setback a couple can manage in 75-years time. While Ruth resides at the State Center Speciality Care, Ray continues to fulfill the vows he made to her all those years ago.

“We’ve got a lot of miles on us,” Ray said.

Their love story began in Marshalltown when Ruth was 8 years old and Ray was 10.

“My folks and her folks always came in to get groceries at Julius Leibon’s Market on North Center Street,” Ray said.

Ruth would read a book while her parents shopped and Ray would people watch. Ten years later, the pair was officially introduced by Ruth’s cousins Eugene Damman and Ben Stolzman at a dance held at Forrest Park Ballroom in Marshalltown. The two hit it off, dancing the night away. They began dating. Ray worked on his parent’s farm northeast of State Center. Ruth for a time worked as a maid at the Tallcorn Hotel, also helping out on the farm.

“She turned 17 the 27th of November, 1943, and I proposed to her,” he said of their courtship.

The pair soon wed on Jan. 9, 1944. But their newlywed life was interrupted by a world at war.

“We lived together eight months and then I was drafted,” he said.

Ray ended up being sent overseas, first arriving to Liverpool, England en route across the English Channel to France.

“I was a frontman so I had to walk. My daughter figured out I walked 1,500 miles from Le Havre, France to 50 miles from Berlin,” Ray said of his Army experience.

He still suffers from health issues sustained in World War II.

The couple wrote to each other during their time apart. Ray said he still has a few of those notes in his possession.

“She said to ‘take care of yourself,'” he said.

Ray was discharged in February 1946, and resumed his work on the farm. Ruth took care of the cows and hogs.

“She was a farm girl,” Ray said.

Ruth later was employed at Marshalltown Instruments then at Walmart.

Ray said he treasures he memories of their many travels, including fishing trips to Canada, visiting family out West and spending time in Florida and the Bahamas.

Unfortunately, Ruth’s stroke in 2008 blindsided the family. She also suffers from dementia.

“I lost 50 pounds doing all the cooking, washing and taking care of her,” Ray said.

Eventually, the decision was made to move Ruth into assisted living, first in Marshalltown, then in December 2012, she moved to State Center Speciality Care.

Ray, who lives nearby, visits Ruth everyday during her lunchtime. They also speak on the telephone.

“If you get right up to her ear, she talks,” he said. “She knows who I am, and the kids.”

Although he and his wife no longer share a home, Ray takes the arrangement in stride.

“Now I do all my own cooking. I bake a lot. She taught me all of this. I make pies, I can tomatoes and cucumbers and make juice,” he said.

The couple has five children: Beth Tuttle, Don Frohwein, Marlys Frohwein, Linda Easton and Randy Frohwein, and several grand and great-grandchildren.

Ray said the secret to a long and happy marriage is to keep an open line of communication — valuing your partner’s opinion.

“If things don’t work right, and you get to arguing, you sit down and see what her problem was first, then when she gets done, my problem. Then you discuss them, then forget about them,” he said. “So many people get divorces four or five years in. You’ve got to get along.”

——

Contact Sara Jordan-Heintz at

641-753-6611 or

sjordan@timesrepublican.com