Little did Griffin know that it was the beginning of a love story that would result in a long and happy marriage.
“We’ve been married 52 years,” said Griffin, 76. “I asked her (Erika) to give me a tour of the Wilhelma Zoo and soon we were seeing each other.”
Griffin grew up in Norwalk, Ohio, but moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where he graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1952.
“My father studied to be an architect and helped design the Pavilion at Lakeside, but it was the depression, so he ended up working as a water inspector for 44 counties in Ohio,” said Griffin, who earned a bachelor of science degree in commerce from Ohio University in 1956.
After graduating, Griffin moved to Dayton, where he lived in the YMCA and worked for IBM for six months until volunteering for the draft and being sent to Germany.
Erika’s father worked as a manager in a Mercedes factory and the family lived in Stuttgart Wangen until their apartment was bombed during World War II and they were forced to move to nearby Bad Cannstatt.
“We used to play tag in the bombed buildings,” said Erika Griffin, who was athletic and able to jump out of second-story buildings to the ground in order to avoid being tagged.
“One of the worst times we had with bombings, was when we went upstairs from the basement and found a bomb that had landed in my brother’s bed and was still ticking.
“We had to evacuate until the bomb people came to take it away.”
When word got back to Erika’s family that she was seen holding the hand of an American soldier, they approached Erika and expressed their opposition to her new boyfriend.
But Erika stood her ground and shamed them for judging Griffin before meeting him. Her family relented and after meeting him decided that he would make a fine addition to the family.
Meanwhile, Griffin studied his German dictionary, so that he could communicate with Erika and her family.
The couple were married by the local Burgermeister on March 21, 1958.
With his two-year military commitment completed, Griffin returned to the United States on a military ship, while Erika was supposed to fly to Ohio to meet him and his family.
Unfortunately, Bill Griffin developed pneumonia and was sent to St. Albans Hospital in Jamaica, Long Island, to recuperate.
Erika, who spoke no English, was in flight and on landing in New York received a message from the Red Cross that her husband would not be able to meet her there.
A stewardess helped her board her connecting flight and she flew to Cleveland where she was met by her new father-in-law, who spoke no German except for the one sentence he had memorized telling her that he was Griffin’s father.
The couple eventually settled in Bellbrook where they raised their three children; Bob, a married father of four living in Plainfield, NY; Jackie Griffin Perseghetti, a married mother of two and grandmother of one, who writes children’s devotionals and lives in Kettering with her husband, Doug; and Michelle Griffin Kallas, a preschool teacher, who has three children and lives in Springboro with her husband, John.
Bill Griffin returned to his position at IBM where he worked until retiring in 1987. He currently sells Kodak printers and supplies from his Bellbrook office.
Erika was a stay-at-home mother, who earned extra money as a baker and cake decorator.
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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