Retired architect, 80, forced to bag groceries as med bills, promise to dying wife leave him broke

A former big shot architect was forced to bag groceries after mounting medical bills and a promise he made to his dying wife left him broke.

Utah resident Gary Saling, 80, has spent years working four days a week at Smith’s Market in St. George – though a well-deserved retirement might be on the horizon thanks to the generosity of others.

The senior citizen started the job in December 2020 about six months after the death of his wife, Carol, from two forms of dementia – including the rare, aggressive Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

His spouse, who was an artist, suffered for about three and a half years, but he was always by her side.  

“I promised myself, God, her, her brother, her son and daughter, (her stepsons), I promised them I would not put her in a nursing home,” Saling told The Post on Sunday. “I’d keep her at home and I kept it.”

The devotion led to skyrocketing at-home care costs, which totaled $80,000 including other medical bills that two faced over the years.

“I paid it all, that’s why I’m broke,” he said, noting about $40,000 was from the at-home care.

The California native, who was a grocery bagger as a teenager growing up, was a talented architect for decades, working on multi-millionaire mansions for big-name clients including Jeffries Investment Group founder Boyd Jefferies in Laguna Beach.

The company Saling worked for was even published on the Architectural Digest top 100 list four times.

Gary and Carol, single parents who both had first marriages that ended, first met in 1990 while she was driving and he was walking along a sidewalk after leaving a park. The two caught a glimpse of each other and began talking on a park bench for more than three hours.

By the next year, they were engaged and soon after they tied the knot. They later moved from the Golden State to Montana when the pair’s children from the previous marriages grew up.

“We fell in love the day that we met at the park,” he said. “We admitted that to each other later when we were dating.”

He chose the job at Smith’s because he wanted a job that required little thinking after years of using his mind to build homes. 

The position has also given him the chance to meet people in the area and make new friends, including Duana Johnson, who wanted to know why he was still working hard at 80.

When he told her his story and that he’d likely need to work until he dies, she quickly started a fundraiser that picked up steam last week when Fox 13 did a report on Saling.

Nearly $40,000 had been raised as of Sunday afternoon – enough money that Saling believes he’ll be able to retire by the end of June. Donors can relate to the loving husband’s commitment to his wife, Johnson said.

“It’s awesome to see that because it shows there’s a lot of compassion and love in our country that a lot of people are speaking against,” Johnson said. “A lot of people are saying it’s not that way, but I’m seeing the opposite.”

“Gary told me that Carol was very faithful, she loved the Lord,” Johnson added. 

“I just feel like her prayers for him as she was leaving this earth are being answered. She loved him so much.”

The progress of the fundraiser has been documented on a local Facebook page.

Saling said he was “overloaded with gratitude” and “speechless” at the generosity. 

“People have said ‘oh what a hero, or an angel or some people have even said saint.’ Well my response to them … I’m certainly not a hero, certainly not an angel and far from a saint,” Saling said.

“I took care of her at home from the day she was diagnosed till I held her in my arms when she took her last breath and it was because I took vows, it’s as simple as that. I took vows in sickness and in health.”