He showed up at her doorstep later that evening. He fell in love not only with her beauty, but also with the fact “she was playing with children. There were no bombs.”
Hilde faced her own hardships during the war. Her mother bartered her beloved teddy bear — her only toy — for five potatoes. When there was nothing left to barter, they stole from neighboring farmers.
“That wasn’t nice,” Joe said, patting her hand and smiling affectionately as Hilde recounted her tale.
She replied, “When you’re hungry, you do a lot of things you’re not proud of.”
After the extreme deprivation of their youth, the couple could hardly have imagined their life now. “Now we have too much to eat,” Hilde said, chuckling. “Sometimes I throw things away.”
They proudly show off their sunny new apartment in the recently remodeled Twin Towers Place, 250 Allen St. They owe much of this comfort and plenty to the vision of businessman Dick McBride and Sister Rose Wildenhaus, a Catholic nun. Twenty years ago they co-founded St. Mary Development Corp. with the dream of affordable housing for low- to moderate-income seniors. In the beginning they recycled every paper clip and ran their “empire” in a cramped old school building with two milk crates as office chairs.
Today the nonprofit agency provides more than 2,400 housing units for moderate- to low-income seniors. It has created six senior apartment centers, built 137 homes for low-income families and created a new emergency housing facility for the Red Cross.
They have succeeded, in short, beyond their wildest ambitions. Observed Wildenhaus, “If there’s a need, God will make it happen.”
Keep reading: Twin Towers housing almost like a college dorm
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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