York Daily Record from York, Pennsylvania • 81

YORK MAGAZINE Your Story Mi bits Glen Rock couple have spent a lifetime filling their home with 1 brotherly love By PEGGY SPANGLER Iba Cottage is quiA 74, eter over Gene Gaeckler, rarely these sleeping and 71 stumble days. Paul bags and in the dining room anymore and pleas to empty just one of the bathrooms are no longer part of the morning routine. Most of the time, anyway. Sure, an occasional stranger meandering through the southern York County village of Glen Rock might stop by curiously after seeing the black-lettered sign swaying in the breezes. But seldom do passersby scale the steep front steps to ask what had become familiar questions: Is this the restaurant? A bed and breakfast? An inn? Boarding house? In fact, Alba Cottage never was any of those things.

Since 1943, the 14-room English-style cottage has been home to the Gaecklers. Their six children found their way to adulthood within its three stories. Parents, step-uncles and various relatives lived their final days under Alba's angular roof. Friends and acquaintances have spent a night, a weekend or more in its seven bedrooms. But paying guests? Nary a one.

has been our said Mrs. Gaeckler, her clear blue eyes twinkling even in the dim light of the kitchen. Here, the aroma of coffee dims memories of the crisp autumn air outside the window. Everyone, Mrs. Gaeckler said, always seemed to end up in the kitchen, clustered around the table, talking and laughing and sometimes even crying.

Just the family would have filled the room, but there always seemed to be room for the children's pals, the artist, longtime friends and the nightclub entertainers, their wives and later, a baby or two. we ever turn anyone away? Heavens no," said Mrs. Gaeckler, her hands carefully straightening the pile of letters they've received from houseguests who have moved on. "We wouldn't have had it any other way." Still, the welcome mat wasn't part of the plan more than 50 years ago when the couple eloped. They met at Shippensburg College where both were studying to be teachers.

Mrs. Gaeckler was in a twoyear program, her husband in a four-year course. During Gaeckler's final year Nov. 13, 1988 York Magazine ceived from one of the former renters. The letter begins, Mumsy." And then there were the nightclub entertainers.

The Gaecklers often went to The Lyric in Hanover and more often than not, opened their home to entertainers who had ALRA COTTAGE Record photos by Paul Kuehnel Owners Gene and Paul Gaeckler stand in front of Alba Cottage, their 14-room English-style home in Glen Rock. Over the years, they've sheltered relatives, friends and even some nightclub entertainers. we ever turn anyone away? Heavens no. We wouldn't have had it any other way. Gene Gaecider in college and Mrs.

Gaeckler's first year teaching in 1935, they were married secretly on Christmas Eve. "In those days, women couldn't teach if they were married. The belief was that the jobs should go to men who generally had families to support, Mrs. Gaeckler said. "So we didn't tell anyone about the marriage." At the time, Mrs.

Gaeckler was teacher to 11 children spread through eight grades at Fissel's School, a one-room schoolhouse now preserved as a museum on the grounds of Southern School District. By spring, the first of their six children was on her way. And the secret was out. Mrs. Gaeckler was not to return to teaching until 1954, af- nowhere to stay.

"Sometimes, when we both were teaching, they would have dinner waiting when we came home," Mrs. Gaeckler said. a while back one called to retrieve a marriage license from our attic." Their children remember growing up in a house filled not only with people but love. A menagerie of pets have also found shelter dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, a monkey, and now, a parrot named Dolly. "They have been opening their hearts and home to people for as long as I can remember and always with love and caring in their hearts despite personal and private sacrifices, said Nancy Warner, eldest of the Gaeckler brood.

and all who needed temporary residence in times of grief, despair, crisis or just a long-needed respite from other lifestyles. "Still they stand, strong and smiling and fun to be around." This, simply, is the way they've always been. The reasons and the motivation elude the Gaecklers. But maybe, Mrs. Gaeckler said, the poem she keeps in her desk would help answer some questions.

She doesn't remember who gave it to her, nor does she know its origins. Handwritten on lined pages that" have yellowed over the years, the poem begins, anybody happier because you passed his way? Does anyone remember that you spoke to him today? you say tonight, in parting with the day that's slipping fast, that you helped a single brother of the many that you passed? Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said? Does the man whose hopes were fading, now with courage look ahead?" Mrs. Gaeckler has read and re-read the poem countless times over the years. Its meaning has been an integral part of the couple's lives. Although family and friends continue to gather at holidays and the like, Alba doesn't rumble with the steady rhythm of footsteps as it once did.

"Now we're invited places. We go out a lot now." Mrs. Gaeckler said Peggy Spangler is a Daily Record staff writer. ter Fred, Reed, Roger, Charles and Cindy were born. Then, until 1968, she taught special education.

dad offered us $100 for every boy we had," Gaeckler said, explaining that the Gaeckler name had been threatened with extinction. the time Roger (the third boy) was born, my dad offered us $100 to stop." Her husband's career in teaching spanned nearly four decades. He taught first in one of the 12 one-room schools in the Shrewsbury area, and later in schools in Glen Rock, New Freedom and finally at Sixth District Elementary School in He taught social studies, English and Spanish at Susquehannock High School and was elementary principal at New Freedom School. All along, Gaeckler moonlighted first in the housepainting business and then his own aluminu-n-siding business. They planted a huge garden and, it, canned canned everything.

"You Mrs. name Gaeckler said with a laugh. Teaching didn't pay much," Gaeckler said. "But we were always able to stretch everything," his wife added. The couple also rented out five mobile homes that they had placed on the hillside next to Alba Cottage.

Only one remains today, and that is home to son Charles. guess I was mother to all the people who lived in the trailers, Mrs. Gaeckler said, unfolding a recent note she re-.