September 21, 2007

A Major League Memory

HealthQuest couple receives anniversary surprise

SILVIS, ILLINOIS - When Chuck and Marge Moody went on a recent HealthQuest trip to see the Chicago Cubs play, they were pleasantly surprised to find a bus-ride celebration in honor of their honeymoon trip to Wrigley Field 59 years ago.

Mary Breitmeyer, who works in the HealthQuest office of the Genesis Medical Center, Illini Campus, decided to celebrate the couple’s baseball anniversary by presenting them with a beribboned bottle of wine and wine glasses decorated in Cubs colors and party favors for all the bus riders.

It was her way of thanking a couple that has given a total of more than 20 years of volunteering to the hospital. “One morning, Chuck said to me, ‘You know, Marge and I were married 59 years ago in July, and we celebrated part of our honeymoon at Wrigley Field,” Breitmeyer says. “Marge got into her purse and took out this little photo of the two of them in front of the ballpark. Someone had taken their picture and said they would send it to them for a quarter.

“I thought, ‘That’s the sweetest story, and they are the sweetest couple. When we go back to Wrigley Field, we’re going to celebrate on our Cubs bus.’ ”

The Moodys of East Moline have gone to many baseball games and many Major League ballparks together since their honeymoon. They remember that summer day in 1948 like it was yesterday, sitting as newlyweds in the upper deck of Wrigley Field. They were on their way home after vacationing up north. “There wasn’t more than 200 people, and you could sit anyplace in the upper deck you wanted to,” Chuck recalls. ”The vendors wouldn’t even come up there. You had to go down to the lower deck to get a beer. I’d guess tickets were no more than $2.50 to $3.”

A more prim and proper era, Marge and the other women at the game wore dresses; most also wore hats. “A lot has changed since then, but there was one really great thing about that day: The Cubs played Pittsburg and won,” Chuck says.

HealthQuest is a free membership program of Genesis Health System for anyone age 50 and over. Benefits include: community discounts, preferred parking spots at each of the hospital locations, educational programs, meal programs, special events and more. To find out more, call the HealthQuest coordinator at one of these Genesis Medical Center campus locations: Illini Campus, (309) 792-4385; Davenport, (563) 321-1095; or DeWitt (563) 659-4200.

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