"Someday, I'm gonna marry Ruthie Ryan ... "

Tom Langan’s heart may have been young, but it was also true. 

He remembers coming home from the first grade and telling his mommy and daddy, “Some day I’m gonna marry Ruthie Ryan because she’s the prettiest girl in the class.” 

As for Ruth, she was focused on other things, like her studies. “He was just a boy,” she said dismissively, “and I loved books and loved learning. I loved going to school.” 

In second grade, he upped the stakes and offered her a piece of precious chewing gum in exchange for a kiss. 

“I said, keep your gum,” she recalled. And because he loved her even then, he gave her the whole box of gum saying, “Aw, you can have it any way.” 

These are stories they both enjoy telling even now that they have five grown children and 20 grandchildren.   

The couple married young with their parents’ blessing, because the Ryans and the Langans were longtime friends. 

Ruth Langan remembers her father saying, “Tom Langan is a guy who will always be there for you,” and the prophesy proved true when she seriously pursued her writing career. 

Nearing 100 published books, Ruth Ryan Langan is now a luminary in the romance genre, but getting started proved difficult.

She recalls setting the oven timer for an hour each day, finding time to write after the kids had gone to school. Her work station was a portable typewriter perched upon the kitchen table. 

When her husband found out (one of the kids blabbed), he bought her an electric typewriter, a desk, chair and filing cabinet, saying, “You need the right tools to do a good job.”  

It didn’t stop there. It was Tom who took care of the kids when his wife had to travel to promote her books.  “You go do your job,” he would say. 

Tom Langan, who is now retired, had plenty back then to fill his days. Although he’s had many business ventures, the flagship , a bowling alley, has evolved into an entertainment center with banquet facilities, pool tables and games. 

There was a time when Nor-West Lanes hosted live music and performers, including young Bob Seeger. 

The Langans are both proud that their business was a pioneer in programs for people with disabilities. They set up ramps so people in wheelchairs could launch their bowling balls and installed bumper pads along the alleys so the balls wouldn’t just roll into the gutter. 

With two very different careers, Ruth and Tom Langan have forged a successful marriage. “I think it makes it easier that neither of us has an ego about what we do," Ruth Langan said. 

And the secret to their happy marriage? “Humor,” she said. “I think Tom is the funniest man in the world and he makes me laugh.” 

Ruth Langan's devotion to her husband is obvious in every one of her books. Each has been dedicated to Tom “because he loves that I chose to follow my dream,” she said. 

While Tom Langan hasn’t read all of those nearly 100 books, he has read a few and what he sees in the books, in the characters, “is a part of Ruth. The respect and the love that the gal has for the man.” 

Together, the Farmington Hills couple continues to build a life that would qualify as a "happily ever after" ending for any book.