A story of faith, love, family, and marriage
By ANDREW HANSEN
Editor 

VANDALIA — Every morning, 101-year-old Marge Hall in Vandalia gets out her rosary and starts praying. Praying the Rosary is like oxygen for Marge. This tradition dates back to her childhood, as every time her family would leave in the car for any trip, they prayed the Rosary first as a family. While those car trips are now over, that Rosary tradition continues for Marge. It’s quite common for her to pray four Rosaries a day, spending hours contemplating on the holy mysteries. She’ll also pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Her friends say she is always praying for someone. 

“I love praying the Rosary as it is invoking our Mother Mary’s intercession,” Marge Hall said. “It is just automatic to pray the Rosary.”

When she isn’t praying, she watches EWTN trying to learn more about our Catholic faith. She’ll also watch Mass on TV. The rest of her time is then usually spent being with and helping her husband, Bob, who is 100 years old (both of their birthdays are in November). 

Married on Jan. 28, 1944, in Tampa, Fla., the couple has reached a rare milestone — being married for 80 years! The couple is known for their strong faith, 100 percent commitment to each other, and their faithful stewardship to their home parish, Mother of Dolors, in Vandalia. They have four children (three of which live in Vandalia), 14 grandchildren, 16 great- grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild (that’s five generations!).

“Marriage is one of the sacraments that God instituted,” Hall said. “Knowing marriage is one of the sacraments strengthened us both over the years in living our Catholic faith. Good and bad times — living this sacrament brought us closer together.”

While Marge is mentally sharp and gets around with a walker, Bob is not as fortunate. He can occasionally communicate, but most days he is non-verbal and stays in his chair. The couple have lived in their own home in Vandalia since 1945 and now have around-the-clock paid caregivers.

Hall says the secret to their love-filled marriage is to “keep God first in your marriage and life.”  It also helps to be madly in love with your spouse.  “Bob is my everything,” she says. 

While they cannot attend Mass because of their health, Marge and Bob are always participating by watching Mass on TV and then receiving our Lord in holy Communion when either a parishioner, Deacon Ryan Kehoe, or Father Seth Brown, the pastor, visits their home. 

“I love everything about my faith,”  Hall said. “Being able to receive Jesus in holy Communion is so special. As a Catholic, being able to have the Eucharist, as Jesus is truly present in holy Communion, means so much to me.”

“Marge and Bob are a wonderful, faith-filled couple,” Father Brown said. “I’ll never forget when I went to anoint Marge after she had suffered a tumble and ended up in the local hospital. She was soon to be transported to a bigger hospital in Springfield. When I arrived, the family was in search of Marge’s purse. Marge wanted her purse, not for money or ID or anything like that. She kept her rosary and all her prayer cards in her purse, and she wanted them by her side and in the hospital with her. She didn’t want to skip praying them even for a day. My job is to pray, and Marge inspires me to keep at it and to pray especially when times are tough. We have a lot of gems at Mother of Dolors Parish, and Bob and Marge are certainly two of them!”

It isn’t just Father Brown the couple inspires. It’s also parishioners like Diane Straub. She visits them often with holy Communion. 

“We all smile as Marge and Bob just want to be sure they are prepared when it is their time to go to heaven,” Straub said. “I just love their strong faith and devotion to the teachings of the Catholic Church and sacraments. When Bob’s brain is working better on certain days, he can pray the Our Father out loud with me and make the Sign of the Cross and respond before receiving holy Communion. I love these days when he can participate fully in receiving holy Communion. On the days he is fully awake and responding, I praise God he can know he is receiving our Lord! Marge and Bob inspire me with the years of marriage and the dedication they have to their faith and continue to have a desire to participate in the ways they are able while being homebound parishioners.”

At her age, Marge says she thinks about heaven every day. “Heaven is waiting for each of us,” she said. “It is a journey to get to heaven over your entire lifetime. When I was younger, life was so busy raising a family. It was hard to really focus on heaven, but as I got older, I have really been able to concentrate on God, as I sit in my chair all day long.”