The Nature of Love

To everything there is a season, especially for true love.

Here, then, is the love story of Esther and Doug Kenning, high school sweethearts.

“I think it was love at first sight. I thought he was so cute and so sweet. I’m sure he thought the same of me,” Esther recounts.

It appears that he did.

The young couple was married at a Christmastime ceremony on December 28, 1963, when Esther was 18 and Doug was 21. They raised their son, Erik, and their daughter, Sonja, in their Rolling Meadows home. The years were wonderful as Esther worked in floral design and as a teacher’s aide at Arlington Heights’ Miner School. Doug worked in computer printing for 42 years at Morton Grove’s Bell and Gossett Company.

The happiest moments in the young family’s life revolved around nature. The family took numerous trips to “the great outdoors,” during which Doug taught his 2-year-old Erik the art of fishing, as he had learned from his own Dad.

“Fishing was my husband’s greatest loved sport. On a shoestring, our family traveled to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Canada, each trip pushing farther into the wilderness. Doug was a very quiet and gentle man. He loved to be alone with his family surrounded by nature,” she said.

When Erik went off to college, Esther became her son’s replacement as Doug’s fishing companion.

“My very patient husband even taught me to catch a 35 pound Canadian Muskie,” Esther said. After their children left home, husband and wife traveled one to two times yearly to Alaska for 26 years.

Unfortunately, in 2005, the Kennings’ season of travel had to pause. Doug had been diagnosed in 2001 with Retroperitoneal Sarcoma, a relatively rare and usually advanced form of cancer. It was then that the couple moved to Sun City.

“His first big cancer surgery took place that year,” Esther said. “My husband wanted to make sure that my future would be spent living in a very safe place.”

Thirteen years with numerous surgeries and multiple chemo and radiation treatments would burden her husband’s body, but Doug was undeterred.

“In between all of this stuff, he bounced back, and we traveled and fished. Besides Alaska, we went to Norway and Hawaii to see Pearl Harbor. In 2012, Doug even postponed a surgery so that we could visit Normandy. It was our ‘April in Paris.’”

When someone has cancer, said Esther, every moment counts.

And so it did for the Kennings. Hands held, they shared the little things in life (besides fishing): walks, bike rides, morning coffees, evening happy hours, and always the sunsets.

“Doug even called our winter walks (after fresh fallen snow) our ‘Winter Wonder Walks,’” Esther continued. “Then there were our Wisconsin ‘Fall Extravaganza Hikes.’ Being born a Norwegian, I continued my practice of making things cozy for Doug (candle-lit dinners), but now more than ever. During the last year of Doug’s life, my goal was to make his life as good as it could be.”

When Doug, surrounded by his wife, two children, and four grandchildren, passed away on January 19, 2015, Esther declared, “Now Doug’s spring has come.”

But for Esther, their season of love still lasts. Throughout their 51 years of marriage, even the bittersweet part, Esther said, “We always chose each other’s company before anyone else’s. We still were always in love with each other.”

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