When Bill had his heart attack; you were in college then weren’t you? And Mike was married, and Debbie was married and was out in New Mexico. Bill was painting the house. Every year after he did the initial painting when we moved in he would do one side.

It was Labor Day and we labored on Labor Day, but not after that. He came in and had lunch and then he came in about a half hour later and he lay on the floor and screamed bloody murder. It was terrible. I said, “I’m calling 911!” He said, “No!” and the doctor told me later that I saved his life.

The rescue squad came from Elita and the nurse came from across the street and I didn’t know for years, after they got him stable to put him in the rescue squad to take him to the hospital that he had passed out. I didn’t know anything until he was clear up in his room.

I still didn’t understand the depth of it because when the doctor; it was Dr. Guerinica, that was the heart doctor then, he was coming to talk to us and I said something about, “Well, I’ll call his boss.”

He said, “Well of course you will. He’s not going to work he’s had a major heart attack!”

So, he was up there for 21 days I think. Imagine that! They don’t keep them that long now for a heart attack.

After he was there and was released we had to go to Dayton. We had no open-heart surgery here and we went down to Good Samaritan in Dayton and they did a cath and then they still waited two weeks to do the open-heart surgery on November 3rd. But when they did the cath we had a scare then.

My sister Phyllis lived there so I stayed with her and the kids took over the house. It went so well that my Christopher in the first grade didn’t even know that anything had happened.

So, we went down there and, yeah, we went to Good Samaritan and the doctor was Bizorky. He was on call for the president and he was one of the very pioneers in surgery like this.

So, Bill said, “Well can’t you do the roto rooter thing?”

They said, “No, you’ve got too many blockages.”

He was in surgery for five hours and all the Schimpf clan came down. When you are a big family you let each other be their own family, but if there is an emergency or a big celebration they all come.

So, they all came down and we prayed him through it.

Phyllis warned me, she said, “Now the fourth day is going to be the worst.”

He got out of intensive care about a day and a half and they put him in his room and I’m sure glad that she warned me because on the fourth day he was terrible. Then, on the fourth day or the fifth day, I was so shocked, they put him in a wheelchair and took him down and made him ride a bike. I couldn’t believe it!

So he was there the 10 days and Bizorky said, “Now when you go home if you have any questions you call me personally. This is my personal number.”

So, we went home and he was pretty scared and so was I. He made a good recovery, but when we first got home he got really chilled and was shaking and so I did call Bizorky in the middle of the night and he told me what to do. I thought he was going into shock maybe, so we got through that and then when – he never cried – Bill never did – until his mother died. That’s the first time I saw him cry when we lived on Main Street.

But then after this heart attack and during his recovery, when people would come from the plant to visit him he would cry. The neighbor man across the street had had heart trouble, so when he was able then they got into the program at Saint Rita’s rehab program and they rode bikes together and went together. They encouraged each other.

He was 48 when he had his heart attack.

When he died we were sitting watching television and he was joking with me and we was watching a murder mystery and he said, “I’m gonna get you!” and the next thing he said was, “Ruth, something is happening to me,” and he was gone, just that quick. Anyhow, I got sidetracked, I’m sorry.

He was home three months and then his boss – again this is small town stuff – people over there knew each other, cared for each other. The boss actually – his name was Ron Klousing – and they actually filled in six months’ worth of disability. He was off from the heart attack from September, filled in the difference of what the disability was so that we could still feed the family.

I have to tell you then, later Bill paid it all back. I didn’t realize that until much, much later, but he did that, you know?

I better skip back quick to Chris – now I forgot to tell you Johnny. When Johnny was born out there in Gomer – I stayed awake for him – he was the biggest baby! He was 9 pounds and 10 ounces and he was 23 ¾ inches long. I had to tell you that! That’s a big kid, plus one day Sharon told him he was adopted and had him crying! (Laughter)

I said, “No way honey, I saw you born!”

So Christopher; he went down to school there and the first six months sat on the floor by the desk cause he wouldn’t follow the rules. But he did then after that. I thought I had a kindergarten drop out. So, let me see…then where were we at? Oh, turning points in my life. Then, when Chris was a freshman I got a job back at Montgomery Wards – no, no I didn’t. I went back to college. I had never been to college. I graduated 12th grade and I went out to the branch and I was going to just update my typing.

Well, they made me take English and a couple other things and that was good. The typewriters, and the first computers – Lord, they were outdated by the time we got done! But, we would do our homework together in the back room.

He would do his ninth grade homework and then he would quiz me and I would quiz him and that was really neat. So, that’s when I went back to work and then an opening came at the Lima public library. It was for the little Elita branch and it said, “Some college” so I got the job. So, for the next six years I was part-time Elita Branch librarian. It was three days a week, about 20 hours…

The kids had the supper on the table, I had to go to work at five, and they would have the supper on the table or I would have it on and they would serve it up and that kind of thing. So, the girls and the kids all worked together with that.

Then, let me see…then we moved. We decided this house was going to be too big for us. Andy by this time had bought a house next door and he didn’t want us to move and we told him, “Hey, by the time your kids are teenagers that’s when we are going to need help and you can’t do it all.”

You’ll have three or four; at that time it would be three, but now he has four and one son too, and Chris had gone into the army when he was a junior in high school. He had early enlistment. Then he married. He graduated in ’92, married his sweetheart the next month and went into the service two months later. He was sent to Germany, so he was in three years. So, at this point then we had nobody at home. John was married and He was in Germany at the time. When Bill died it was about two years later when we moved to our little retirement home, he was to be sent to Bosnia. His group went to Bosnia but he came home to Bill’s funeral. It was almost time for him to be out.

So, he died September 20th in ’95 and his duties were up in like November of ’95, but the rest of his group were kept in anyhow and sent to Bosnia. So, he came home for dad’s funeral. They say they got him in the field and brought him in and he said that when they told him his legs just went right out from under him. I feel bad because he didn’t get to have a one-on-one as a man with Bill. He was the last kid and Bill was tired and was really quite strict on him. So, mother was too easy on him then.

That’s what my kids keep telling me, “Chris got away with everything!”

Yes, my girlfriend – our best friend, her husband died five weeks later from the day from Bill so we grieved together. Then another friend’s husband had died about a month or two before so we became the three musketeers and with our grieving together that helped.

I held on, I thought, pretty well because I knew the kids were under such stress. They loved their dad very much. But, then the one time Beth came to the library for lunch that’s when it started. You brought me a little card and you came down to eat in my lunchroom with me, because by this time I was at the main library, and I started crying.

They said, “Good! We wondered when you were going to start crying.”

So, in March I quit there and told them I was going to go and do my mourning. I had another job lined up but after I got in the other job at Lima Building Products six months later, I thought, “What the hell am I doing here?”

I mean, it was an easy job. It was a receptionist, but I thought, my grandkids! I want to go be with them and I can get a job later after the grandkids no longer want to be with grandma. That was my thinking. I never regretted it. At first I tried to go to everybody’s ball games but I gave up on that because 37 grandkids! Seven of those are greats right? But, I hope I made a difference being available.