Ken runs the farm stand, and Andie bakes from scratch, using superior ingredients, the way our great-grandmothers made things, because that’s the best for body and soul.

Our long and winding story, that led us to Wingspread.

We started working long before most kids even thought about summer jobs. Ken was ten, already pitching in at the family business. I was fourteen, balancing trays and pouring coffee at a local diner. Hard work wasn’t a choice—it was the air we breathed, the example our parents set. My father’s favorite line still echoes in my mind: “Success without hard work is only in the dictionary.”

We married young in 1974, two polar opposites who somehow made it work. I’m a visual thinker—I sketch diagrams, draw layouts, and see the whole picture in shapes and connections. Ken is a talker. He processes everything out loud, building ideas through conversation. Early on, this difference drove us both crazy. He’d stare at my sketches, completely lost. I’d listen to him explain something and struggle to translate his words into something I could see. We’d circle the same problem for what felt like forever, frustrated and repeating ourselves.

But here’s the beautiful part: that struggle made everything better. By the time we finally understood each other, we’d uncovered details and improvements we never would have found alone. Our differences stopped being obstacles and became our secret strength.

Now, more than fifty years later, we’re living the best chapter of our lives.

We’ve both worn many hats. Ken worked as an undertaker, a service manager, and a people manager—roles that taught him how to truly listen and care for others in their hardest moments. I waitressed, became an interior designer, and trained as an alternative therapist in massage, reflexology, and aromatherapy. Every decade I went back to school for new degrees and certifications, chasing better ways to help people feel good in their bodies and lives.

Mid-marriage, we sat down and got honest with ourselves. Ken dreamed of being the old-fashioned family doctor who really knew his patients. I imagined becoming a city planner who designed thoughtful communities with beautiful parks and responsible growth—or, in my secret heart, an artist painting in a sunlit Parisian loft. Life had other plans, but it didn’t waste our dreams. It reshaped them.

Today, those long-ago callings live on in new forms. Ken is still the great listener, the fixer, and the steady presence people turn to. I’m still the designer and creator, pouring artistry into everything I touch.

And here we are—running a farm-stand together. Ken manages the front, greeting customers with that warm, grounded way of his. I bake authentic goods the way my Hungarian great-grandmothers and Ken’s Granny once did: with real ingredients, no shortcuts, and a whole lot of love. Every loaf, every pastry, every cookie carries generations of tradition. Customers tell us they can taste the difference—and more than that, they feel it. It nourishes both body and soul.

We never could have predicted this life when we said “I do” as wide-eyed kids in 1974. The journey hasn’t always been easy. We’ve had to work at understanding each other, pivot careers, let go of old dreams, and keep showing up. But that hard work—the same grit we learned as children—has led us here, to a season where we finally feel like we’re combining the best of ourselves.

We’re doing what truly makes us happy: caring for people in the best way we know how. Through fresh bread that tastes like childhood, through conversations at the farmstand, through creating something honest and good in a world that often feels rushed and artificial.

It’s still hard work. But it’s the kind that fills us up instead of wearing us down. And every day, as we watch people leave with warm bags and smiling faces, we’re reminded that the best things in life are rarely the ones we planned—they’re the ones we build together, slowly and honestly, over a lifetime.

For fifty beautiful years, we’ve walked this journey side by side. And now, in the gentle season of our retirement, we’re finally doing what our hearts always longed for—we’re working together, pouring every bit of our skill, experience, and passion into a dream we call “Wingspread.”

We could never have imagined this chapter. Yet here we are, living our very best life. Yes, it’s challenging and the days are full, but we’ve never been afraid of hard work. What truly fills our hearts are the wonderful people who find their way to us. Each one feels like a gift, and their presence has become the greatest treasure of this new adventure.