At the end of the date, they’d pray the rosary before he could kiss her good night

From The Hartford Courant comes this lovely story of a deacon and his wife—a saga of faith, conversion and, believe it or not, swinging:

John Abdalla walked up to Irene Dauphin, a newcomer at work, and said he would give her a golf lesson at lunch. “The next day we went out at lunch,” to Stanley Park in Hartford, John says.

With one hour and 10 minutes for a lunch break at Stanley Works in 1951, it was easy to practice golf swings at a nearby park, John says.

“After that first date, she shocked me by saying, ‘Would you like to come over to my house on Sunday for dinner?'” he says.

Irene, 19, was seventh in a family of six boys and four girls. John, 25, was seventh and the youngest of his siblings.

After dinner with Irene’s family, “It was one day after another,” John says. “In the evening we’d go for a milk shake, an ice cream, soda or a movie.”

But at the end of the evening, when John thought he would kiss Irene good night, she said, “Let’s say the rosary.”

“She was from a very religious family,” he says.

Irene was Catholic and John was Greek Orthodox. “She taught me how to say the rosary with her,” after which “I would get one or two kisses before we said good night.”

They married, raised a family, and John converted to Catholicism —and eventually was ordained a deacon:

At age 75, John retired from working at golf courses, and in 2012, he retired from his deacon assignment. He still is on fire when it comes to his religious work, he says, and is happy to help out wherever he is needed.

“I like preaching. I like the privilege of being a deacon,” he says, adding that he has enjoyed the blessing of baptizing their 10 grandchildren and twin great-granddaughters.

Irene “was at my side all the way,” John says.

Over the past ten years, as John lost his sight, Irene became his driver, and now assists him with the readings, if needed, though he has memorized most of the religious rituals over the years.

John has a great sense of humor, Irene says: “That’s what attracted me to him. He would make the people at work laugh.”

Read it all.