Environmental Services Team Members Jim and Rose Inspire True Love with 48-Year Marriage
Every day is Valentine’s Day for Jim and Rose Funke
The Lewiston couple, both employees with Gritman’s Environmental Services Department, have been married for 48 years and worked alongside each other for nearly two decades.
Environmental Services team members Jim and Rose have been married for 48 years.“It’s just true love. We love each other,” Jim said of their 48-year marriage. “We put up with each other. We learn how to get along and we just do.”
“The No. 1 thing: We put God first and we go from there,” Rose added.
Jim and Rose primarily work cleaning and sanitizing rooms in the hospital’s Medical-Surgical and Critical Care Units. They have become fixtures at Gritman over the past year, with both patients and staff remarking on their hard work in keeping the hospital clean. It’s a job the pair have taken pride in since joining Gritman in 2022, and in prior roles at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston.
The couple met in Southern California when a mutual friend invited them both to the same gathering. They’d lived near each other their entire lives but never met until Jim showed up to the party on a motorcycle because his car was in the shop.
The couple moved to Lewiston in 1979 to be closer to family, raising three children in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and traveling the world every chance they could. Jim spent 29 ½ years in health care and Rose 17 years before both joining the Gritman Family last year.
Gritman Environmental Services Director Penny Denis, who also worked with the pair in prior roles, was happy to welcome them to Gritman.
“Jim and Rose are what I call Gritman’s Dynamic Duo,” she said. “Their exhilarated personalities are embraced by many.”
The feeling is mutual. Jim said he loves the Gritman atmosphere and the ability to interact with people and patients throughout the hospital’s many departments. Jim and Rose also enjoy the opportunity to help each other get tasks done throughout their shifts.
“We share the load, work together,” she said.
From everyone at Gritman, Happy Valentine’s Day Jim and Rose!
