My parents met at the train station where my father worked in the ticket office selling tickets and my mother was the telephone operator. She was engaged to a breakman who had regular "runs" on trains running in and out of St. Louis on the night shift. As she began to get to know my father, the breakman she was engaged to began to be less interesting. One night when he was on his "run," she returned his engagement ring to his mother, telling her she was "sorry, this just won't work." This was the beginning of my parent's relationship, started before WWII, and ending as death parted them after 49 1/2 years of marriage.