Bakersfield Life

'The last gal I saw'

By: Lisa Kimble

Oh what William Shakespeare might have penned had he known Bakersfield businessman and philanthropist Marvin Steinert and his wife Nadene when he coined the phrase ‘love is blind.’

     The Steinerts were young and in love when they vowed to remain together in sickness and in health 68 years ago. Today, the couple’s love has been tested by that clause in their marriage vows in a way neither could ever have imagined.

 

     Whether it was love at first sight when they first met matters little now. About 18 months ago, virtually overnight, it became love at last sight when Marvin awakened the morning of Aug. 18, 2009 and couldn’t tell whether it was day or night.

 

     “She was the last gal I saw,” the 88-year-old said of his bride and the last image he saw before closing his eyes the night before.

 

     Steinert was diagnosed with ‘temporal arteritis,’ a rare condition that causes inflammation and damage to the blood vessels that supply the head area, particularly the large and medium arteries that branch from the neck.His only symptom was difficulty chewing, which he attributed to old age. Marvin’s condition came on the heels of Nadene’s recovery from a slight stroke.

 

     Now, at 89, she is his primary caregiver, helping him through the ‘in good times and bad’ clause of their vows as well.

 

     “I have to be right beside him,” Nadene said.

 

     Unable to flip through the many photo albums or appreciated the framed family pictures on the walls of their den alongside mementoes of a lifetime of world travels and distinguished work and giving, she is his window to their world.

 

     “I am now his eyes,” she said. “There are lots of times we sit and watch a football game on television, and I will describe to him what is going on down on the field, what colors the teams are wearing.”

 

     Their courtship began on a hot afternoon in 1940.

 

     “My friend and I were sitting at the Frontier Days rodeo at the old fairgrounds when these two boys came up and asked if we wanted a soda,” Nadene recalled. “He asked if he could take me home, so I asked my father, who was on a horse at the time in the parade.” She was just 18.  

 

     They married two years later and Marvin, knowing he would be drafted, quit his job at Union Oil that morning to enlist in the Air Corps.Their honeymoon lasted just 11 days before Marvin left to serve in the 13^th Armored Division.

 

     “We had to do it the hard way, with him in the service, being together, and then apart,” she said of the challenges of early married life.“But our faith in Jesus has helped us.”

It also helped that the pair didn’t believe in divorce.Their union was blessed with three sons, two of whom live in town and work with Marvin, as well as six granddaughters and 12 great-grandchildren.

 

     “If we had differences we looked at the good side of things,” he said. “If we had an argument, we would get together and forget about it,” Nadene added. “We wouldn’t know what to do without each other.”

 

     Over the years, the ups and downs of commercial real estate investment, raising a family and running a household only reinforced the commitment these best friends had made to one another.

 

     “Nadene has a good, even temper and she does everything she can to please me, which is not the easiest job in the world,” he laughed.

 

     Their key to longevity, besides their mutual fondness for cruises, has been to balance the other.

 

     “We try not to both get upset at the same time,” Marvin said. “One is a leveler for the other. The state of marriage is scary these days. It doesn’t seem like it is sacred anymore.”  

 

     Despite Marvin’s health crisis, they spend their days as they promised back in 1942, to love each other in ‘joy as well as in sorrow’ for as long as they both shall live.

 

     “She has a terrible job, and it is awful for me just sitting around,” Marvin said.

 

     A helper comes in to assist Nadene who still drives Marvin to the office one day a week where his granddaughter helps him on the computer and reads the newspapers to him.

 

     Whether it be blind faith or their unbreakable bond, although everyday is a struggle, Marvin Steinert says he is making the best of it with his devoted wife’s help, and holding out hope for divine intervention.

 

     “The only thing we are waiting for is a miracle,” he added.