Silver Lining

Former Bonners Ferry resident Bill Sage realized there is no time like the present when he asked Jean Merna Oliver to be his wife after a one-year courtship.

Bill Sage once owned the building where Leonard Schulte C.P.A. is and Schulte actually worked for Bill until he sold him the practice when Bill retired.

“I don’t have time to wait,” the 83-year-old old Sage told the 77-year-old Oliver, who married on July 7.

Dan Clark, the new Jean Sage’s son, said the couple fell madly in love.

“They knew each other for a year but they seemed to be in a hurry,” Clark said.  “It was funny to watch because they don’t seem to have a lot of hang ups and Bill fell madly in love with her (Jean) right away.”   She was telling him maybe they should slow down, and he said he didn’t have time to slow down so they decided to get married.”

Jean said  originally they thought about getting the family together for the wedding, but that everyone was so busy getting them together would take time and planning.  Bill told her he did not want to put it off, and an 86-year-old neighbor told Jean the couple should just elope.

It was like watching a couple of teenagers, Clark said.

Bill and Jean seemed destined to meet.  They grew up in Naples just moments from each other and new many of the same people, but never met.

The hands of fate stepped in a year ago when Bill went to have some rings appraised at a jewelry store in Coeur d’ Alene.  This was a jewelry store that Jean’s son owned.

Well fate had intervened even years before.   Jean’s former husband had become a watchmaker, then a jeweler and bought a jewelry store in Coeur d’ Alene.  Ironically the same jewelry store that would bring Bill and Jean together.

The woman who had helped Bill with his jewelry was intrigued by him and she knew Jean.  She also knew Jean lost her husband, and the two may have something in common.

The woman introduced the couple and the pair became inseparable.  They both love dancing and danced their  way to a little church in Naples, where they found out they had much more in common than originally thought.

Since the couple grew up on Boundary County, they thought it was fitting to purchase their marriage license here. At Boundary County Courthouse, they spoke with Christine Peterson in the Boundary County clerk’s office, who was handling their license.  They found out that Peterson lives on the property where Jean grew up.

Peterson told the couple if they wanted to get married right away that South Boundary Fire District Chief Tony Rohrwasser could perform the marriage.

“I said ‘you bet we do’,” said Bill.  I love her very much and I am not going to wait any longer.”

So the couple met with Rohrwasser and he opened the doors to the Naples Community Church.

“There was a piano and a pulpit and not much else,” said Bill.

The couple noticed a dedication plaque from 1928 where Reverend Morton, a fire and brimstone preacher, according to Bill, listed the women of the Ladies Aide Society.  This was a group of women who would meet at the church.

One of the first women’s names that Bill recognized was that of Leana Sage Moline,  who was Bills mother.  A few names down the list was Mary Etta Marcy, who happened to be Jean’s grandmother.

“We had many ties and parallels we didn’t even know about,” said Jean.  It was real interesting, once we got talking about it we couldn’t stop.  It turned out that Bill new many of my former husband’s siblings and went to school with them.”   “It is funny how we never met until now.”

“Tony gave the nicest sermon for us, it was essential and he really is a very nice man,” said Jean.

The couple makes their home in Coeur d’ Alene and Bill has his house for sale and will move into Jean’s home.

Bill and Jean met and had so many coincidences that could have led them to an earlier meeting. 

But timing is everything and they came together in a magical way.  They outlived their previous partners and have a lot of life and love left in them and didn’t want to waste any time getting on with their lives together.