Bowling Gives Couple Second Chance At Love

Editor's note: Summer intern wrapped up her two-month run at Elk Grove Patch last week. While she was here, we enjoyed sending her on crazy missions. The task this time: to go out on the streets of Elk Grove, find someone interesting to profile, and write and file a story—all in a single day, by 5 p.m. We think she pulled it off. What do you think?

When Diane Huff joined a bowling league after her husband died 14 years ago, she was simply looking for a fun activity that she’d feel comfortable doing alone. She had no idea the sport would lead her to her second love—Dwight Towers, now 76.

“His brother was on my bowling league in Southern California,” said Huff, 65, during a break in the couple’s bowling practice at recently. “My husband had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 50 and his wife had been very ill, then passed.”

Towers, who had lived and worked in Northern California, went to visit his brother in Southern California after his wife died—it was on that trip that he met Huff.

“I came to visit him, and I met her. What a lucky day for her,” he chuckled as he nudged her playfully.

“What a lucky day for him,” she quickly retorted with a smile.

Though the couple got together soon after losing their spouses—about a year and a half after Huff’s husband died and four months after Towers’s wife passed—Huff said they both knew what they wanted.

“When you lose someone and you were happily married, you want that again,” she explained. “You don’t want to be alone.”

Since they met, the couple has moved from Southern California to Pennsylvania, then back to Stockton, finally landing in Elk Grove in March.

“He had family here so we decided to move to the Del Webb community,” Huff said.

The couple still bowls with a league in Stockton, however. Huff said that while Elk Grove has Strikes, the senior leagues there are much smaller than what she is used to.

“I don’t even know if that’s a league,” she said as she pointed to a small group of seniors. “I think they just come here to bowl.”

According to Strikes manager Logan Grinsell, the center currently has three small- to medium-sized leagues in the fall, but does not run major summer or winter leagues.

Huff hopes to change that. While she is new to Elk Grove, she said she enjoys the city and Strikes and would love to have a large senior league right here. She also believes the league would help business.

“Look around,” she said as she pointed to empty lanes. “It’s not very busy right now. Mind you, they do have night leagues, but still.”

Towers said he wasn’t much of a bowler before Huff came into his life, but soon became a convert.

“I like it. I’m no good at it, but I like it,” he said. Huff gently smacked his arm in disagreement.

“You’re good,” she argued. “I’m just better. I was better than my first husband too,” she laughed.

For Huff, the morning rarely consisted of anything less than a spare, and no matter what she bowled, she always high-fived her man on the way back to her seat.

If you know of any fascinating Elk Grovians we should write about, email felicia.mello@patch.com. And if you're sad to see intern Leidhra Johnson go (we are!), don't worry; she'll still be freelancing for Patch as she finishes .