Love Story: A second-grade field trip presaged their romance

Rose Anne (Calandra) Urban of North Wantagh chats about meeting her husband, Jim.

In 1969 I was at Meadowbrook Hospital (now Nassau University Medical Center) to apply for a nursing job. I was 21, lived with my family in East Meadow and had just graduated from Nathan Littauer Hospital School of Nursing in upstate Gloversville.

While completing the application, I saw someone I knew. James Urban was a fellow classmate from our second- and fourth-grade classes at Meadow Lawn Elementary School (now George McVey Elementary School). On a second-grade field trip to Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan, James was my partner and we held hands. We hadn’t seen each other for about 12 years before meeting at the hospital but recognized each other and chatted a bit. He was an X-ray technician student and was assigned to do my chest X-ray as part of the employment process.

I got the job and loved running into James. He was also 21 and living in East Meadow with his family. He attended Meadowbrook Hospital School of Radiography during the day and worked as an ambulance attendant in the evenings. After six months, he asked me out, and we had dinner at a pizza place near the hospital. The next day he sent me a dozen roses. I was very impressed. We started dating and saw each other every day. He would stop by my house after his evening shift and usually fall asleep exhausted. Four months after our first date we got engaged. We married on Feb. 27, 1971, at St. Raphael Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow on a rare 60-degree day. We honeymooned at Memorytown USA in the Poconos, where we snowmobiled over beautiful snow-covered fields.

Jim was drafted into the Army four months after our wedding. A recruiter suggested he enlist so he could serve as an X-ray technician. After only eight months of married life, Jim reported to Fort Dix in New Jersey. We both had a hard time being separated. He came home around Christmas, and we were never apart again. His first assignment was Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and then Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia.

Jim was discharged in September 1974, and we settled in Augusta. But missing family, we returned to Long Island a few months later. We bought a house in North Wantagh in 1977 where we live today. Our first daughter, Jennifer, was born in 1973 and our second daughter, Jaclyn, six years later.

Jim has worked in many positions at NUMC’s radiology department. He’s been there 54 years and is now assistant to the radiology department’s administrator.

I worked in many areas of hospital nursing as well as staff development. While I worked the evening shift for 15 years, Jim handled dinner, supervised homework and put the girls to bed. I’ve been an adjunct professor for five years at New York Institute of Technology’s nursing department in Old Westbury.

Jim has always been thoughtful, never forgetting my birthday or anniversary. He used to send me flowers at work for all occasions. I think he was trying to embarrass me, and sometimes he succeeded. Jim collects coins and stamps that he hopes to leave to his grandson someday. Our daughter Jaclyn lives in Brooklyn, and Jennifer and her husband, Larry, live in Levittown with their two children, Samantha and James.

We have vacationed in resorts along the East Coast and enjoy our time share on Cape Cod.

Although I was hoping for a big 50th anniversary celebration, we’re having a small celebration at The Cooperage Inn in Baiting Hollow. Maybe one day we’ll hold hands again at the Hayden Planetarium.

— With Ann Donahue-Smukler