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For Couple Love Sweet Second Time Around

Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST NEWS

Betty Nagle, 90, is proud of the engagement ring she received from fellow Heather Hill Healthcare Center resident Charles Burgess, 96.

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By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: June 10, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Love might not be lovelier the second time around, but it's just as sweet.

That is the conclusion of Betty Nagle, 90, and Charles Burgess, 96, as the two prepare for their wedding today, Wednesday, at Heather Hill Healthcare Center in New Port Richey.

The two senior lovebirds will be married by the Rev. Robert Steinke, pastor of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, while sitting in their prospective wheelchairs.

"She's somebody to talk to, to give her my troubles," said Burgess. "I don't hold anything back."

Burgess was quick to see Nagle's potential when she moved to Heather Hill a year ago.

He became interested in her the second time he saw her. "I thought she's not a bad looking woman," he recalled.

Their third meeting did the trick. "I told her I haven't known you very long, but I have a funny feeling something is happening to me."

Nagle wasn't quite so charmed. "Not me," she replied.

After all, she had married the love of her life, William Nagle, who passed away 50 years ago when the couple lived in New Jersey. Nagle had contented herself keeping busy with her daughter, Linda Dolding, her garden club, the PTA and Girl Scouts.

"I never found anyone to fill his shoes," she said.

Burgess had felt the same way about Lola, his first wife of 71 years. Lola passed away June 26, 2003, Burgess explained, the words popping out of his mouth like deadly bullets.

He had prayed to God to give him a good wife when he was a mere youngster growing up in Chicago and God had responded by sending him Lola, the perfect wife, he said.

After Lola's death, Burgess became lonely. "You don't know how it is," he said. "Five years just sitting here looking at the walls."

As a Christian, Burgess decided to try prayer once again.

This time, he met Nagle.

The couple got to know each other during Heather Hill outings. Was he a fast worker?

Burgess smiled. "You have to be." He took her hand during a ball game two months after they met. She left it with him for a few minutes but removed it to applaud the team.

"I'm in love," he told her. "Aren't you in love with me?"

"It takes time," he said Nagle responded.

But Burgess' heart was opening like a flower that had been dormant for too long, and he couldn't contain his love. He gave her a necklace with two golden hearts for Christmas.

"I didn't know what to think," Nagle recalled. "I wasn't planning to give him anything."

She had to make a quick trip to Wal-Mart to get Burgess a present, she recalled, laughing.

But the man who is president of the Heather Hill Resident Association began to grow on her. "Everybody in the whole place likes him," she said.

She began to appreciate the qualities that had made Burgess a devoted husband for 71 years. "He is one of the nicest, kindest men I have ever met."

Burgess took up the story.

He kissed her the first time on New Year's Eve.

A few months later, Nagle began to cry. "Don't you know I love you?" she asked him.

Heather Hill Activities Director Carolyn Johnson is delighted with the couple's courtship. "When you get people who are high functioning and alert, it can be lonely if there's no one out there at their level to talk to."

The community appears to have embraced the couple, Johnson noted. Skip's Florist, in Holiday, has donated flowers, Sweetbay Supermarket the wedding cake, Romantic Creations and Designs, top hat and tuxedo for Burgess; and Nanci Larson, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Nagle's makeup.

The once reluctant Nagle couldn't be happier. "I've had two good men," she said and then smiles, "I love Chuck."

For pictures of the couple's wedding on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 11, go to suncoastnews.com, keyword: Nagle Burgess.

Cheryl Bentley can be reached at 727-815-1069 or cbentley@suncoastnews.com.

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