IN LOVE FOR LIFE

By Lori Bell
PROGRESS STAFF WRITER

O'Fallon couple Arthur and Luella Roberts never celebrated Valentine's Day. Love, to them, wasn't reserved for one day of the year. It was a way of life - day in - day out - for 70 years.

This Valentine's Day, however, will inevitably be different for Luella Roberts. She lost her life-long Valentine.

Luella, 90, was with her husband when they admitted him into the nursing home on Feb. 3 after a one-week hospital stay. She spent her days and nights by his side at the nursing home until Saturday, Feb. 10 when Arthur, 90, died in his sleep.

“I had been staying there with him all week because I would rather be there with him than at home without him,” Luella said. “I was lying on the couch sleeping when they told me he was gone.”

Gone from a life that Luella calls “complete.” But Arthur hasn't been lost in her heart.

Last June, the Roberts celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary - a milestone most couples never see. In a June 13 article in the O'Fallon Progress, the couple reflected on their years together and how their relationship flourished from the day they decided to cross the Illinois state line to elope.

They made it as far as Marshall, Ill. where they found a justice of the peace just before the courthouse's noon closing time. That Saturday in 1932 was the beginning of their life together. They both were just 19 years old and had fallen in love three years prior.

“After living with him for 70 years, you have your ups and downs but we had a good life together.” Luella said. “I hate to give him up.”

For nearly 40 years the Roberts have lived on East Adams Street. That corner house was meant for them to live in together, Luella said, which is why she decided she'll make the move to O'Fallon Health Care Center in the near future.

Arthur, a native of O'Fallon, was buried Tuesday at Lakeview Memorial Gardens in Fairview Heights. He was preceded in death by his parents James and Fannie Roberts, two brothers Morris and Charles Roberts, and a daughter Shirley Ann Roberts Wilhoit.

The Roberts only child died of breast cancer at the age of 47 in 1983. That was a time in the Roberts' life together when tragedy tested their love and in the end made it stronger.

“We've been through a lot together.” Luella said, “but we've always been together and we got along good for all those years.”

They also survived the trying times of the Great Depression and Luella said Arthur's years as a business agent for the Labor Local No. also were rough on him.

“But he did a good job and everyone thought a lot of him,” Luella said.

Many “good” memories will carry Luella through the rest of her life without her husband by her side, but she said there is one in particular that she treasures now.

“I never got one thing from him for Valentine's Day all those years. We didn't celebrate it,” Luella said. “When I was 90 years old in September he said, `I want to buy you a flower' and I told him he didn't have to do that, but he wanted to. So, we went to Hart (Food and Drug) and he bought me a flower.”

“That was the first flower he ever gave me.”