Meet Your Future Neighbors: MARIE AND TOM AKER

Tom and Marie Aker are currently residents of the seaside community of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. The couple moved there upon retirement in 2002 after growing up in Roanoke, Virginia. Their Christian faith has always been a big part of their lives, and they love participating in many facets of their church community.

Marie was born in Atlanta and moved to Roanoke at the age of five. Her father traveled for work, and she grew up very close to her mother (“the most wonderful mother in the world,” she exclaims). She began piano lessons while in elementary school and continues to enjoy playing to this day. Marie has had a lifelong love of making music and has had the opportunity to play for many churches along the way. She is also an accomplished seamstress and knitter, talents she learned both from her mother and at school. Over the years, she has made much of her and her family’s clothing as well as window treatments and other items for the home. Marie attended Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she majored in Home Economics. Eventually, she transferred to a business college and finished her degree there. She was the “household administrator” for years before she went back to work as office manager for an OB/GYN clinic, which she did for 18 years.

Tom “was born in the hills and the mountains of Virginia,” he says. As a young child, he lived in the Marion area among his extended family, who worked as farmers and mechanics. His father was employed by Nationwide Insurance as a claims adjuster. His family moved to Roanoke in 1952. He was involved with the Boy Scouts, which “made a lot of difference in my life,” he notes. He attended West Point for two years and, after deciding he wanted to serve in the U.S. Army Transportation Corps, he transferred to Virginia Tech, where he received his degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1964 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. After college, Tom was deployed to South Vietnam in 1965 for one year. He was then assigned to duty with the 714 railway operating battalion at Fort Eustis, VA, in August 1966. In April 1967 he was released from active duty and returned to his work at Norfolk Southern in Roanoke. Tom was involved in the introduction of the first double-stack railroad cars and served in the mechanical department for 36 years. He retired at age 57 in 2000 and has worked as a railroad consultant since.

Marie and Tom met when they were both sophomores in high school. They grew up in different areas of Roanoke and had not crossed paths until they shared homeroom (due to the fact that both of them had last names beginning with “A”!). Tom always got to class early and was sitting in the back row with a friend when “this beautiful young lady stood in the door,” he recounts. He told his friend, “I’m going to marry that girl.” They were both in Youth for Christ, and one day after a meeting, Marie asked Tom out for a date. They dated for five years and were married in August 1963.

Their first daughter was born while Tom was in Vietnam, so he did not get to meet her until she was nine months old. Their younger daughter arrived a few years later. They raised their daughters in Roanoke, where they were active at First Baptist Church. Marie sang in the choir and Tom played tuba in the church orchestra. Marie and Tom vacationed along the coast of South Carolina and decided to move to the Murrells Inlet area after they retired in 2000. They have been there for 23 years and love their church, community and friends. For fun, they can be seen dining out at least once a week with those friends, renamed “the posse” by their oldest daughter.

Their current home is about halfway between their daughters. The oldest is in Northern Virginia and the other in Brentwood, Tennessee. Marie and Tom are blessed with 5 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. “We’re a very close family.”

Recently, Tom and Marie’s daughters expressed concern that their parents are so far from family and started talking about a move to Tennessee. Tom and Marie toured several facilities, including Belle Springs, while visiting their daughter in Brentwood. Interested, they did additional research and attended informational meetings with the staff and really liked the concept of the Belle Springs retirement community (Tom’s engineer eyes give it a thumbs up!). They decided it sounded like a good fit for them. “The staff there has been exceptionally wonderful,” says Tom. They are looking forward to being closer to their daughter and her family and enjoying the church they attend.

“We do not know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future.”, said Tom.