‘One blessing upon another’ for trailblazing couple who were among first students to integrate Sacred Heart School in 1950
Their love story spanning many decades began in an unlikely way when they met at a friend’s birthday party in August 1950. Rohulamin Quander, then 6 years old, was playing hide-and-go-seek and chased Carmen Torruella, who was 5, into a large empty box and playfully tried to kiss her.
Later they became high school sweethearts. “He was my first boyfriend,” she said. The couple married in 1977 at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart and raised three children, and in June 2022 they marked their 45th wedding anniversary.