Meet Al and Ann Hill, a couple from Cincinnati, Ohio who have been married for 53 years and have been foster parents to nearly 100 girls over the past three decades.
The couple first met in high school and eventually got married. They had 2 daughters, but they said the home felt empty when they went off to college. That’s when they decided to become foster parents.
For 37 years, Al worked as a bus driver and a manager to provide for the growing number of their foster daughters. On the other hand, Ann was the strict mother who imposed the house rules while at the same time a soft-spoken and dependable mother who they could always lean on.
“We made our home for everybody,” Al told Cincinnati.com.
“You know what you learn? There are so many people with nowhere to go,” Al said.
At the age of 79 and 78, the Hills are retired from work and from fostering since last year. It had been a rough year since they also lost their youngest daughter, Rhonda, at the age of 46 shortly after she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Now, even though they don’t remember some of the names of their foster daughters anymore, they said they will not forget the streets where the girls moved since they left because they visited them. While some ran away or stole from them, they are glad that most of their foster daughters still come to visit them for Thanksgiving dinner.