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From a cherished past, love blossoms

By AMY SCHERZER
Published July 20, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Photography by Robin] Veterinarian Walter Woolf married financial planner Linda Fries on Feb. 17. Their recent marriage is a compliment to their late spouses. It's a compliment, they say, because it takes having had good relationships to recognize one. Read more wedding tales and submit yours

DAVIS ISLANDS - Linda Fries and Walter Woolf know all about good marriages because they've had them. 

"And we'd never settle for anything less," Fries said. 

During the decades they were married to others, they attended Tampa Interbay Rotary gatherings. Woolf would chat with Fries' late husband, Max, and she always looked forward to seeing Woolf's late wife, Millie. 

Asking Fries to accompany him to a Rotary holiday party started the couple on a future together, even as they cherished the past. 

"We ask ourselves all the time, 'How did we find each other?' " Woolf said. 

"How did we get so lucky?"

Woolf's world fell apart on Oct. 29, 2005, when Millie died of multiple myeloma. They'd been married 48 years and worked side by side at Woolf Air Animal, shipping thousands of pets worldwide. Woolf closed his vet practice in September 2000 but continues to consult on issues related to transporting animals. Millie was 67.

Fries' life shattered abruptly in April 2001 when her husband of 22 years died after a stroke. He was also 67.

"Such a shock," she said. Fries, a financial planner, coped by burying herself in work at the business they owned together, Fries Financial, and spending time with her two sons and stepchildren.

In December 2005, Woolf thought asking Fries to a Rotary party, where they would have mutual friends, would be comfortable for them both.

But before he called, the veterinarian polled three of her closest friends. All three said she'd decline.

"I hadn't asked anyone out for a date in 52 years," he said.

As her friends predicted, Fries turned down his invitation to the club party. But she understood his grief and agreed to meet him for dinner.

"He was hurting and I was just trying to be a friend," she said. "I knew what he was going through. I had had a broken heart, too."

Fries ordered the same meal - ahi tuna salad and Chardonnay - as Millie always ordered.

"That was eerie," he said.

By the end of the three-hour dinner, Fries had changed her mind.

But at the party, when a couple of Rotarians gawked at seeing them together, unaware of Millie's passing, she had second thoughts.

Too soon, Fries remembers thinking.

She was wary when Woolf took her home and asked if he could call her.

Still, she said yes.

"So I drove around the corner and called her," he said.

Woolf drew strength from the frank conversations he and Millie had during the two weeks and two days she was under Hospice care.

"She told me to get on with my life," he recalled. "The way you love to shop, some woman should benefit from that," Millie told him.

She even suggested which widows and divorcees he should call and which ones to avoid. She admonished him to wait a year to marry, not to start another family, and not to marry anyone younger than their daughter Andrea, 46.

"She still had her sense of humor," he said, tearing up.

Woolf, 71, also took advantage of bereavement counseling offered at Hospice.

Hearing about those sessions made Fries, 65, wish she had gone when Max died. She decided not to date Woolf, but was happy to help fill his calendar. The eligible bachelor would often call to regale Fries with recaps of his evenings.

"I went on an active campaign to find him dates," she said.

But not for long. She realized her feelings had changed during a visit to see her mother in Missouri.

"I had fallen and injured my foot," she said. "Sitting there waiting for Walter to return from a date and call me made me feel a little jealous."

When he did call, and heard about her foot, he told her he was flying out to see her.

"I told him no, but he could meet my plane," Fries said, "and that he couldn't date those other women anymore."

Since then, they have traveled to animal air transport trade shows, taken a river cruise through Russia and toured Napa Valley tasting wine.

"We enjoy each other's company," Fries said. "We're as happy as we can possibly be in this phase of our lives. The emotional feelings are an added bonus."

Woolf gave Fries an engagement ring during Thanksgiving weekend.

"I didn't expect to get lucky twice," she said.

Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank, longtime friend of both, officiated at the Feb. 17 ceremony at the Tampa Woman's Club. A dozen grandchildren stood up with them.

The crowd hushed when the couple rose for a champagne toast to their late loved ones, Millie and Max, and the wonderful relationships they shared.

Share your story

Love is in the air; wedding invitations are in the mail. If an intriguing twist led to your walk down the aisle, e-mail ascherzer@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 19, 2007, 08:02:24]