Ruth was a great listener and played countless hands

Ruth Ermish

Ruth Ermish, a quiet, yet fun-loving wife, mother and grandmother who was devoted to all she loved, died Thursday at Kingston Care Center in Sylvania. She was 97. Ruth grew up on Blaine Avenue in a tight-knit Toledo neighborhood (later lost to Interstate 475) with her parents Mary and Alois Yeager and her two sisters. She attended Auburndale School graduated from Scott High School and soon landed a job at Willys-Overland, where she worked as a secretary and stenographer until the birth of her daughter, Kathleen. She went back to work when Kathy was 10, first at Lamson’s department store at the Colony and then at Hoskin’s shoe store. There, she helped fit children, many of them polio victims who needed orthopedic shoes, in new shoes in a career that lasted more than 25 years.

It was not unusual for customers to recognize her decades later – and she always remembered them. Ruth met her husband, Del Ermish, during a circle dance at a weekly dance lesson. They married in 1939 and spent many of their Saturday nights during their 57-year marriage at dances, often sponsored by the Masons or the Shrine. She did not seek the spotlight, though on rare occasions found herself in it, like in 1941, when she jumped from the kitchen window of her and Del’s burning apartment and was pictured in the Blade that afternoon in a robe borrowed from a neighbor. She was a whiz of a seamstress and made beautiful dresses for her daughter, hunting shirts for Del and Halloween costumes for her grandsons. She canned all sorts of fruits and vegetables from the garden and orchard maintained by Del at their home in Erie and was famous within the family for her spiced peaches and pumpkin pie.

Ruth was a great listener and played countless hands of cards with her grandsons (especially the rummy game she called telefungi) while serving Boston coolers, scrambled egg sandwiches, bratwurst from Kilgus Meats, her special molasses bars or chocolate-covered raisins. She always agreed to their requests to roam the basement at her and Del’s home in Temperance to play the old Zenith shortwave radio and marvel at her grandfather’s wine press, the duck feet Del (an avid duck hunter) nailed to a basement beam or any number of other treasures. As a member of the Ladies’ Oriental Shrine she played the glockenspiel with Musiqa and sang many years in the chorus.

 She and Del traveled often with the Shrine both for fun and to perform. She bowled on Shrine teams for many years. Seventy years after reading it, she could recite extensive details of Les Miserables and many other classics. She lived a full life and was in good health until the last few years, traveling to Idaho for her grandson’s wedding when she was 92. Ruth was preceded in death by her husband Delbert C.

Ermish, brother Paul Yeager (who died in infancy), sister Marguerite Yeager and son-in-law Richard A. Brunt. She is survived by her daughter Kathleen Brunt of Lambertville; sister Lois Ridley of Dallas, Tex., grandsons Christopher Brunt (Jenelle Williams) of Bloomfield Hills, and Jonathan Brunt (Adrian Rogers) of Spokane, Wash.; great-grandchildren Jack Brunt, Molly Brunt and Hazel Rogers-Brunt; and special nephew Tom Bollin of Minneapolis.

Ms Fletcher said there were sometimes signs that one partner was struggling with their sexuality.

"Some of the signs are things that might tell you someone's having an affair such as unexplained absences, being with one particular person a lot more and very close relationships with other people of the same sex which seem more than just friendships," she said.

"Everybody can (have fetishes) so I wouldn't say that's not necessarily a sign of homosexuality ... I've seen just as many heterosexual men come undone from (excessive porn use) as homosexual men.Show your nature beauty with the formal office dresses for women, which could help women confidence at everywhere.

"If the sex life within the relationship is not satisfying or stimulating (for the sexually conflicted partner) and you're thinking about what would make it better and the thing that comes to you is that you actually want to be with someone of my own sex, well there's your answer."

New York psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert said about 3 per cent of his clients were homosexuals living in heterosexual relationships.

He said they were mostly men aged from their late 20s to 50s.

"Denial is how they cope. They might come up with explanations such as: 'I was drunk' or 'it's just a one time occurrence' or 'it's just physical so it isn't cheating'.

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