It started with a fencing match.
It ended with him holding her hand as she left this world.
In between, there were more than 60 years apart — years lived richly and fully, with spouses and children and careers, in far-flung regions of the country.
But, as he wrote to her in January 2010, “I have never forgotten you.”
***
The opening act of this romance took place at Wagner College. It was September 1939 when Carl E. Heilsberg enrolled. Bernice Mikkelsen, known to all as Mickey, had already begun her studies at the College the previous semester.
Men’s and women’s fencing teams had been established a few years earlier at Wagner College ...
READ THE REST of this story by Laura Barlament on the Wagner Magazine blog.