SABATTUS — Lifelong Roman Catholics Pauline and Reginald Fortin would have been married 60 years in September.

He was looking forward to their 60th anniversary.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” she said a few days before Christmas.

Reginald, 81, died April 28.

As they faced his last days together and as she goes on alone, faith helps, Pauline said.

“For me, my faith kept me going all my life. I have never been alone. God has always been there. That’s what keeps me going,” she said.

She misses her husband, her friend. “He was a good man. He was always there for me and the children.” 

In the 1950s, the couple met through friends. “He was going out with a friend of mine,” Pauline said with a chuckle.

They married in 1956 at St. Peter’s Church in Lewiston.

They raised four children, one boy and three girls. Eventually, they were blessed with nine grandchildren.

Before retirement he worked as an electrical engineer for Harriman architectural firm in Auburn. She taught English and religion at St. Dom’s.

One thing she misses most is how Reginald would kneel and pray before bed each night.

“He wasn’t a pious man, but he was religious,” she said. “He had values instilled by his parents. He insisted on going to church every Sunday,” she said.

The couple and their children went to Our Lady of the Rosary in Sabattus, the church she continues to attends.

Sometimes during Mass, “I hear what I need to hear,” Pauline said. When she taught religion she’d say God is speaking “when one word strikes you, or a thought.” You need to listen.

A Navy veteran, Reginald was talented, she said. He painted, did a lot around the house.

“He made furniture for us,” she said. He valued the environment and was an outdoor person who hunted and fished. As technology evolved, Reginald liked using the computer.

He also had a quiet sense of humor, his wife said.

“He liked to flirt with the ladies. They enjoyed it,” Pauline said, laughing. “He was being himself. He was with us mentally until the end. It was a gift that I thank God for.”

His last days were hard, but “I knew we weren’t alone,” she said. God was with them “encouraging us, keeping us strong.”

Reginald remains a part of her. He’s in her heart, her mind.

When looking at her calendar to schedule an appointment, Pauline remembered what Reginald always told her.

“‘Make a list,'” she said. “I can hear him say that.”

bwashuk@sunjournal.com