It's amazing anything slowed Leonard Wibbels down.
As a youth, Leonard was a spitfire of a baseball pitcher,
so good that he played with the St. Louis Cardinals semipro
farm team. When World War II came along, he married his
wife, Betty, seven weeks before getting shipped to Europe,
where he served as a first sergeant in the 178th Ordnance
Division of the United States Army.
After three years and several close calls (they lost one
man out of their unit in three years), Wibbels returned
for even more movement. For 20 years, he was a mail carrier
for rural routes near Grand Island, he still played baseball,
quite well to hear his son Gregg tell it, and became a father
who delighted in seeing his children participate in sports.
"He only missed one football game the whole time I
was in college," Gregg said. "Every time you'd
look up, there he was with Mom up in the stands."
It took a bout of dementia finally to slow the 81-year-old
Grand Island resident down. Wibbels has been a member up
on Third Phillips since September 2004, but he still keeps
the nurses on their toes. Leonard's wife, Betty, still lives
in the area and visits him on a fairly regular basis. The
couple met in their hometown of Wolbach, and while the war
interrupted their first several years of marriage, life
after he got back was always pretty fast-paced.
"We were always going to something," Betty said.
"The kids always had something going on, and if they
didn't, he did."
Aside from remembering his father and mother in the stands
during his playing days, Gregg said, he remembers them making
great efforts to cheer, support and give encouragement.
The dedication to sport led at least one of their children
to be a coach and others with fond memories.
"His life revolved around sports most of the time,"
Gregg said. "The only reason he gave up baseball is,
when he got back from the war, he thought he was too old.
That's what he always told me."
In recent years, Leonard got slower a bit at a time, until
the family made a decision to give the veterans home a call.
They've been pleased with the care but also with how Leonard
has responded, adapting quickly to his environment. While
sports was a big deal, Gregg said he also remembers weekend
trips in the car, advice on subjects other than sports and
his father's presence.
"He was 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds," Gregg said.
"I never wanted to mess with him."
Throughout her life, Luella Hinrichs had her share of Herculean tasks. At age 14, she had to plan a funeral for her mother and two younger sisters, victims of a car crash... Read more...
Gregg Wibbles remembers his father Leonard as the man in
the stands before he developed dementia. Betty Wibbles remembers
the man in both army and baseball uniforms.