SOUTH PORTLAND — Marjorie Finn had promised her husband, Gordon, that she would be with him when he died.
For two months, she sat by his bedside at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough, sometimes eight to nine hours a day. On Monday night, she took her husband’s hand and kissed him on the forehead. She told him she would be back in the morning and he gripped her hand slightly, she said. When she got home, her phone was ringing.
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Gordon Finn, a loving husband to his wife for 68 years, died Monday night. He was 89.
“I told him I wanted to be there when he died,” his wife said Tuesday afternoon. “I feel so bad ’cause I promised him I would be there. These things happen.”
Mr. Finn and his wife would have celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary April 26. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son, Alan Finn of South Portland.
The Finns met during a study period at South Portland High School when he was a junior and she was a freshman. Mr. Finn was a standout baseball player, and his wife went to all his games, she said.
Mr. Finn was described by his wife Tuesday as a fun and active man who liked to travel, play cards, go bowling and work in his garden. For the past several years, the couple wintered in San Antonio, Texas. Marjorie Finn said the two were inseparable.
“We were together all the time,” she said. “I miss him not being here. I’ll miss the companionship. Even at night, I feel like he’s on the other side of the bed and he’s not. He has been my whole life and now I feel like my life is over, too. I don’t know which way to turn now.”
Mr. Finn worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years. He began his career as a letter carrier in Portland, then worked in the mail-sorting room, then as a clerk at various Portland branches. He was later transferred to the post office on Cottage Road in South Portland. He retired in 1985.
“He really liked people awfully well,” his wife said. “He really did. He got along with everyone.”
Mr. Finn had a passion for gardening. His wife said he spent many hours grooming their yard and meticulously cutting the grass.
“Every spear of grass had to be perfect,” she said. “He got right down on his hands and knees. I told him not to be so funny and to stop. He would say ‘I’ll be in in 10 minutes’ — he stayed out another half hour. I couldn’t get him in when it got dark.”
On New Year’s Eve 2000, the couple’s lives turned upside down when Mr. Finn suffered two brain hemorrhages that left him with significant memory loss. He remained in the hospital for a few weeks and was transferred to the South Portland Nursing Home for rehabilitation.
His wife said the nurses advised her not to take her husband home. She did anyway. For the past 10 years, she helped her husband try to recover and get his memory back. They continued to travel, play cards and go walking together, she said.
“I’d do it again if I could,” his wife said. “I was so intent on getting him to a point where we could live a little longer together and enjoy our lives together. We had a wonderful life. We really did. I’ll miss him something terrible.”
Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at: mcreamer@pressherald.com
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