DAVISON, MI – Shanna Penzien laughed when she thought about it.

She was working at a market her parents owned when Bruce Penzien came in to get some gas.

Shanna thought he was married; a co-worker said that wasn’t the case.

“I couldn’t talk to him,” she chuckled. “I’d already told him my whole life story.”

When asked if Bruce would take her to a dance, he said yes.

“We never went to the dance,” Shanna said.

Instead, the pair went to her aunt’s bar.

“I had a Coke. He had a beer,” she said. “Three months later, we got married.”

That was in 1984, and the couple enjoyed more than 40 years together.

Those years included raising a family and vegetables on Bruce’s family’s more than century-old farm. Bruce took over the farm after his late father, Floyd Penzien, became paralyzed.

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