Serrania Park in Woodland Hills has no shortage of regular visitors: people walking and jogging around the 0.5-mile loop, groups of dog owners letting their pups socialize or sniff around the grassy lawn, parents showing their toddlers how to ride a tiny, plastic tricycle.
Mary Lou Schwarz was one of the parkgoers. She considered the park to be her oasis where she walked her dogs every day, soaked in nature and caught up with her friends.
Then two years ago, Schwarz passed away after battling ovarian cancer.
Her death has been painful for her husband, Dan, especially when he comes to the park to walk their dogs without the love of his life.
“It’s like missing an arm,” Schwarz says while holding back tears. “It’s been very difficult, but I still come. I know she’d want me to. It’s good for the dogs. But it’s very difficult to be doing something we used to do together.”
After meeting at a tennis club, the couple was married for 29 years. Mary Lou embraced Dan’s children from his previous marriage as if they were her own, the husband recalls. The couple once ran a coat manufacturing business together. After retiring, they traveled the world, sometimes accompanied by their grandchildren.
“It was an incredible marriage. I’d match to anybody in the world,” Dan describes.
While still grieving, Dan has recently mustered up the strength to do something he had promised Mary Lou: dedicating a bench at Serrania Park.
“I said, ‘One of these days, if you go before me, I will bring a bench here and bring you here forever.’”
The black metal bench overlooks the green field with several luscious trees and a playground for children. Dan picked out the location as it was one of Mary Lou’s favorite spots at the park.
Dan says it’s gratifying to know he delivered what he had promised to his wife, and the bench is enjoyed by by the community.
“[When the bench was set up] I took a picture and said, ‘Here it is. I fulfilled my promised as you knew I would. I hope you can see it from there.’”
The new shiny bench is not going unnoticed by regular parkgoers, especially for Dan’s heartfelt message.
A couple who frequently comes to the park to walk their dog tells NBC LA the special story behind the seemingly normal bench made an impression, with the girlfriend telling her boyfriend, “Babe, I’d want the same!”
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