Building a life together, Secane couple celebrates 70th anniversary
DREXEL HILL>> Al Kloss is left- handed. His wife Fran is right- handed. Laying down hardwood floors, those four hands worked together to build a home in Secane. Seventy years ago they vowed to build a life together.
Today they celebrate their 70th anniversary with family and friends at the Columbus Club in Clifton Heights.
The two grew up in the Oakview section of Drexel Hill along Creek Road.
“We met when we were young kids, eight or nine years old. I was smitten with him. I said he’s my boyfriend but he didn’t know it. Years passed. He and my brother were good friends and we went bowling together. He was going off to war. I was 15 and he asked me if I would wait for him,” said Fran.
Al served in the Army in North Africa and Italy. On her sixteenth birthday he sent her dolls that she still has today.
“Thank God he came home. The war was a bad time. We started dating again. We came out of the Depression, there wasn’t a lot of money; it was give and take at that time. We eloped going to Elkton, Maryland. I would go another 170 years with him He’s the greatest. I love him dearly,” said Fran.
On that 24th day of January in 1947, she was 21 years old and he was 22 years old. After their wedding they moved into an apartment on Mary Street in Clifton Heights and then to a starter home in Drexel Hill. Fifty-seven years ago, they built the home that they live in today.
They bought the lot, a U.S. Steel House to fulfill his dream of building his own house.
“He was a good provider. We worked together to accomplish the life we have,” said Fran.
He was a machine operator, worked for Sun Ship and worked at his own business as a landscape gardener.
She worked at Clifton Precision and then did engraving and worked at the Franklin Mint. She is an artist using multi-mediums, even peanuts. He planted an oak tree for her, taking acorns and twigs from the tree that didn’t survive; she made a piece of art to memorialize it.
Fran is the granddaughter of an engineer, so with her intuitive eye for construction she decided that she wanted to make some changes in their home unbeknownst to Al. She took a saw to the drywall to cut out a hole for the kitchen door.
“I cut out a door. He didn’t know until he came home from work. He said ‘What did you do Fran? We won’t be able to get this work done until Christmastime.’ We got it done,” said Fran.
Fran wasn’t finished there. She wanted a deck to sit on and look out on the backyard. He didn’t think he could do it, but she reassured him telling him he could do anything he put his mind to. He built a house. When it was finally done they ate out on the deck and he loved look
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