Jewel Gardner, 83, and James Brooks, 82, were determined not to let wind and rain dampen their wedding. But that required patience—a lot of it.

The couple, residents of the Olathe Towers, started dating in January and fell in love. They planned an outdoor wedding for June 12 on the lawn at the towers so friends there could attend along with family members.

The wedding day arrived, bringing a thunderstorm. The wind howled and the rain came down in sheets, but that was not an insurmountable obstacle. They just moved the festivities inside.

Guests and family crowded in, only to discover that the electricity was off, taking lighting and air-conditioning with it. About this time, a young bride would be crying and wringing her hands. A young groom would be shaking his head in frustration. But Gardner and Brooks weren't about to let it ruin their day. Instead of a sunny outdoor wedding, they had a beautiful candlelight indoor wedding. And halfway through the reception, the air conditioning came on, providing a happy ending.

As one guest said, "It's a wedding they'll remember."

The romance started with a game similar to checkers called Rummikub.

"We had seen each other around the Towers and had spoken, but we weren't really acquainted until we started playing Rummikub with other residents," Gardner explained. "We played nearly every night after dinner and got to know each other better. I thought he was a very nice man. We found we had a lot in common and enjoyed each other's company. He started walking me back to my apartment after the game. We began dating in January and fell in love."

Said Brooks, "We did what most couples in love do. We went shopping and out to dinner. We found a Chinese restaurant we both liked. We found there were many things we liked. I started going to church with her. I like that."

They have similar backgrounds. Both married young—Gardner when she was 14 and Brooks when he was 20. Both had long, happy marriages. Gardner and her husband, Floyd, were married 65 years when he died in 2005. Brooks' wife, Rosella, who was 18 when they married, died in 1998, just before their 50th anniversary. Brooks has seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren; Gardner has four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. All attended the wedding.

Both have been lifelong hard workers. Gardner and her first husband came to Johnson County from the Tulsa area in Oklahoma. They built and sold houses and operated nursing homes in Kansas City, Mo.

"My husband and I worked together," Gardner said. "We were a two-person team until he died. He was a builder and I was the bookkeeper."

Brooks, who was born in Arkansas, dropped out of school to work with his father, delivering logs to a sawmill.

"We took the logs down the St. Francis River about 15 miles to the mill," he recalls. "We nailed the logs together to make a raft. We'd have logs 12 feet or so long in the raft we pulled with our boat."

Brooks did this for about three years while his brother was in the military during World War II. When the brother got home, Brooks went to work in a shoe factory in Illinois. That's where he met his first wife.

"We were married in 1949, and two years later I was drafted into the Army and sent to Korea for a couple of years," Brooks said. "I was in combat for about six months but never got hurt. I guess it was because I had a mother and a young wife praying for me."

He and Rosella had two sons, Gary and Roger, and a daughter, Leanna Higgins.

"We lived in the St. Louis and St. Charles areas until Rosella died," he said. "I moved here in 2004 to be near Leanna and her husband, who live in Olathe."

Higgins couldn't be more glad about her dad's new love.

"I'm so happy for my father," she said. "I like Jewel. I think she's a very nice, sweet lady. I'm glad to see them so happy."

Gardner's daughter, Edith Rogers, also of Olathe, is pleased for the couple, too.

"I am very happy for them," she said. "James seems like such a nice gentleman. We're part of the same family now."

After the wedding, the couple left on a driving honeymoon.
"We're going to drive to St. Louis, then go through Illinois, Arkansas, and Mississippi," Brooks said. "We both drive, so we'll switch off and won't get tired."

They hope to do more traveling, as Gardner has sisters in California who haven't met Brooks.

They'll continue to live at Olathe Towers.

"We both enjoy living there," Brooks said. "We've made a lot of good friends. We hope they'll have a larger apartment ready for us when we get back!"

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