BUCYRUS — Valentine’s Day was always THE holiday for Maria Winemiller and her late husband, Lance. Anyone who knew the couple knew that.
“I know it’s not like a big holiday, but it was a special day for us,” Maria said. “Valentine’s Day was our little special day. And yellow roses, not red ones, were always my favorite flower.”
This year, Maria is celebrating Cupid’s favorite holiday in another way. She’s honoring the love of her life, who died three years ago from a rare form of cancer, by cutting off her hair and establishing a fund in his name.
Donations to the OSU Wexner Center Foundation – Lance Winemiller Fund may be made here.
She hopes it helps with her healing, and she hopes it gives strength to others battling cancer.
“I should not be mad at God, but I ask him a lot of questions,” said Maria, who is known around town as the owner of Photos by Maria. “I have so many memories. We were close. We were very, very close, so that’s what makes it hard.”
Maria, who had been letting her dark hair grow since Lance died in 2015, had nearly 15 inches cut off last week at Kennedy Lane Salon. It was sent to Brenda’s Hair to Wear in Westerville to be made into a wig for those suffering hair loss from chemotherapy.
She has also set up the Lance Winemiller Fund at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, with proceeds to support research and perhaps find a cure for Castleman disease (CD), a rare disease of the lymph nodes which ultimately claimed his life after a two-year battle.
Lance, who underwent treatment at OSU, was diagnosed with Castleman disease in the fall of 2013 after, for no apparent reason, he started losing weight. Doctors told him he actually had an aggressive and more serious form of the disease known as multicentric, or MCD.
After 27 years together, Maria’s love story ended on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, 2015.
The two fell in love at first sight. They met back in the fall of 1986 when they both were living in sunny Glendale, Arizona. He was a student at the Automotive Institute for Drafting. She was a young receptionist at the college.
Lance asked her out on a date to celebrate his 24th birthday.
“We spent his birthday at the Phoenix Zoo and took in a movie, which was Top Gun, my favorite to this day,” Maria said. “I remember all the little things we used to do together.”
Their courtship continued thousands of miles apart for a while after he moved back to North Little Rock, Arkansas, for a job.
“The long-distance relationship continued, and I didn’t expect it to go any further than that, but I was in love,” Maria said.
“Then one day I said to him, ‘Lance, will you marry me?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I was shocked,” she said.
They said their “I do’s” during a simple church ceremony on Christmas Eve, 1989. A reception happened afterward at her parents’ home in Arizona.
In 1998, the couple moved to Bucyrus, so Lance could take a job with the Timken Company. They bought a home on Temple Road in the country, raised Maria’s two sons and eventually welcomed six grandchildren into the family.
She calls the 2013 turn of events a nightmare.
“Watching my husband suffer so many setbacks was a lot to take in and it was so hard for him to deal with too,” she said. “Lance was never sick in his life, just the common cold and normal stuff. But I did everything I could to keep him going and fighting.”
That fight sadly ended, and Maria said farewell to her Prince Charming.
Although she has struggled since his passing, Maria is trying to carry on. She has undergone grief counseling. She has battled depression. Life has sometimes been a blur.
“It’s very hard,” she said. “There are days that I make it and days that I just can’t take it.”
But taking photographs gives her some comfort. And so does sharing her remarkable love story. Because Valentine’s Day is all about love. The most special day of all for Maria and Lance.
More information on, and to donate to, The Lance Winemiller Fund and information on the doctor leading the studies on the disease may be found here.
