Family was always center of her life
Louise E. Bamford's children and grandchildren went all out to celebrate her and her husband's 50th wedding anniversary, but it turned out to be merely one in a number of significant milestones.
Before they were done throwing anniversary parties, Mrs. Bamford and her husband, William, would have marked 70 years together.
"We celebrated the 50th, and then the 55th, and then the 60th," says their daughter, Linda Lussnig of Elk Grove. "We just kept going."
So did the loving couple. From their first meeting at a wedding -- when he claimed to experience love at first sight -- to his dogged pursuit and his final victory, it lasted literally a lifetime.
William Bamford died 18 months ago, at the age of 92. On Tuesday, his wife passed away. The 53-year resident of Elk Grove, was 90.
"They just had a deep love and affection for one another," their daughter says. "They brought to the table the meaning of family."
Their oldest son, Ronald Bamford of south suburban University Park, says their long marriage was built on love and respect, as well as compatibility.
"They just got along really well," Bamford says. "You could see how much they loved each other."
In looking back, their children suspect it was that longing for family that drew them together in the first place.
"My mother was one of eight children, and my dad was an only child," Lussnig says. "My mother brought to him what he never had, a big family."
Right from the start of their marriage in 1936, Mrs. Bamford's large, Italian family surrounded them. They shared holiday meals together, played cards together, and helped one another in times of need.
"At Christmas time, my mom and all my aunts would start preparing the Italian sausage and all the food at the beginning of December," Lussnig adds. "That's how I learned to cook, watching them."
Mrs. Bamford never worked outside the home, considering herself a homemaker. While her husband worked as a screw machine specialist, creating specialty parts for Amelia Earhart's plane as well as the government during World War II, she tended the home front.
She loved keeping her home, her children say, and making special meals for family, which eventually grew to include two children, five grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.
"My mother was so thrilled to be able to see all of her grandchildren grow up, and now her great grandchildren," Lussnig says. "She was one of the luckiest persons in the world."
Visitation for Mrs. Bamford will take place from 3 to 9 p.m. today at Grove Memorial Chapel, 1199 S. Arlington Heights Road in Elk Grove Village, before a 10 a.m. Mass on Friday at St. Julian Eymard Church, 601 Biesterfield Road, also in Elk Grove Village.