One in a series of occasional portraits of people COVID-19 has taken from us.
Bob and Betty O’Donnell met on a blind date at a Portland social club in 1948 and married in 1950.
It was a love story that lasted 70 years, through raising six children, two cross-country road trips, camping adventures, and the births of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Their love withstood illnesses, old age, and the death of a son in 2000. They even fought COVID-19 together.
Bob and Betty O’Donnell on their wedding day. Family photos
Robert “Bob” O’Donnell and his wife, Elizabeth “Betty” O’Donnell, both 92 years old, tested positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 4. He died from complications of the virus on March 24 in Bonita Springs, Florida. She is recovering and was discharged from the hospice center on Thursday.
O’Donnell was a retired district chief of the Portland Fire Department who was remembered for his dedication to family and service to the community.
He joined the Portland Fire Department as a firefighter on Engine 3 in 1952. He was promoted up the ranks to lieutenant, captain, then district chief before retiring in 1974. His daughter Beth O’Donnell said Thursday that he took pride in his work and service to others.
“He loved saving people, taking care of people, and helping people out of harm’s way,” she said, choking up. “He was the neighborhood dad. He was always there doing and giving anything he could to help someone. He was an absolute caring, loving man, who left an impact on people.”
O’Donnell was a 1946 graduate of Portland High School. He joined the Navy and served aboard the destroyer USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. While on leave in Portland in 1948, he met his wife at a social club and they dated for two years. While she was in nursing school in Massachusetts, he would drive down every weekend to see her and bring her Amato’s Italian sandwiches.
“They were adorable those two,” their daughter said.
Bob and Betty with their 6 kids
They were married on Oct. 28, 1950, lived in Portland and raised six children in a tiny cape-style house. And they made it work.
His daughter said they had an amazing life together. She reminisced about the years they piled into the station wagon with a trailer in tow and drove cross country, twice, to visit national parks and camp. She said they did a lot of outdoor activities like hiking, boating, hunting and fishing.
“We were always busy in the summer. We went camping all our lives,” his daughter said. “They raised amazing children. They had strong values and they passed that down to all of us. We are a very close family. … He was incredible. They taught us well. They brought us up amazingly.”
O’Donnell was remembered by his children this week as a hard worker and devoted family man who worked two, sometimes three jobs to provide for his family. In addition to his work as a firefighter, he was a skilled mechanic and worked at Emery Waterhouse.
“He was busy. He was never sitting around,” his daughter said. “Family came first. He moved heaven and earth to make sure we were OK and taken care of. His wife and his kids were his life.”
O’Donnell felt strongly about service to the community. He was a member of the Kora Shriners from 1976 to 2001, a member of the Shriners’ Royal Order of Jesters, and volunteered for the Cycle Corps parade unit and the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Boston. The O’Donnells spent winters in Bonita Springs, where he was a member of the vestry at Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church for 30 years.
Bob and Betty O’Donnell
The couple returned to Maine every summer to live at their camp in Andover, although the pandemic kept them from returning to Maine last year. They each had their first COVID-19 vaccination about two weeks before he died.
Bruce O’Donnell, the oldest of their six children, said the night before his father died, he was wheeled across the hall into his wife’s hospice room so she could see him. She sat up in bed, next to his bed, and held his hand and rubbed his arm, he said.
Their daughter reflected on their last hours together.
“She said, ‘It’s OK Bobby. It’s OK. I’m right here,’” she recalled. “When it was time to move him so mom could sleep, he told me and Bruce to go home. He curled up on his side and passed at 5:30 a.m. When I saw him, I was at peace because he was no longer suffering. He was a very strong man, and to be reduced to not being able to stand up … it was very tough for him.”
Over the years, the couple had talked about death and dying. Betty O’Donnell always thought she would pass away first. For a brief time, it looked like she would. On Thursday, she was discharged from hospice to a nursing home. Her son said she’s doing OK, considering.
“It’s holy week. She’s like Lazarus coming back from the dead. She was in hospice, which is where you go to die. She’s made a pretty good comeback,” he said.
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