By Susan Shinn Turner
For the Salisbury Post
Bea Hall and Bill Greig found love just around the corner.
Both residents at Trinity Oaks apartments, they had a commitment ceremony on Sept. 3, 2020, both dressed in Hawaiian attire. More on that later.
They’re both keeping their apartments.
“This works,” Bea says. “We both like our alone time. And he doesn’t have room for my sewing machine!”
They met during a first-floor meeting. They live on the same hall but on different wings.
Bea found out Bill was from Hawaii — one of her favorite places to travel. More on that later.
They started saying “Aloha” to each other when picking up the mail. Bea was intrigued.
One day, Bea was trying to plant to dianthus, and realized she needed holes dug.
Before long, she heard, “Aloha!”
“Aloha!” she said to Bill. “Can you dig a hole?”
They dug three of the six holes and took a break halfway through. Bea is 88, seven months older than Bill.
“We took a break and talked a long time,” Bea says. “He’s such a nice guy.”
And they had more talks, and soon decided they wanted to be together.
Chaplain Brenda Bynum, who has since retired, conducted their commitment ceremony. Wearing Hawaiian attire seemed just right for both of them.
Bea and Bill both say they’ve been lucky in love twice.
Bea and her first husband Lester, a civil engineer who worked in the brick industry, were married in 1952. When the last of their three sons finished school, Bea started traveling, and then leading trips. There’s really not a country you can name that Bea hasn’t visited, and she went to Hawaii every chance she could.
They both lost their spouses about the same time in 2016. Bill didn’t want to live alone in a large house, so he moved to Trinity Oaks in 2019.
“I had worked in Salisbury 30 years ago,” says Bill, a retired electrical engineer with 37 years of service with Duke Energy. “It was like coming back home. I had no idea I’d meet somebody.”
But meet they did.
If you look up the word for “love” in Hawaiian, it is, you guessed it, “Aloha.”
Wishing much aloha to Bill and Bea.