In preparation for seminary studies, Armand needed to complete his high school requirements. Serendipitously, when he started classes at the local Ottawa Hills High School, a beautiful young woman stopped him in his tracks. Betty Grainger had noticed him even before that when Armand had sketched their home a few years earlier as a way of earning money.
In fact, she was attracted to his work before she was attracted to him. Already, as an early teen, she sensed something valuable in what he did. “I was thirteen years old when I remember my father coming in the house and saying to my mother, ‘There’s a man out here who would like to make a drawing of our house. How about it?’ And my mother said, ‘Sure, that’d be great.’ Of course, I’m sitting there, you know, thinking, ‘Wow, a drawing of our house. It must be an artist that’s going to do that.’ I was so excited. But, of course, I was too shy to go out and see who it was so I just peeked through the curtains in the window. I had no idea that he was only sixteen years old. It was a drawing for five dollars but of course at that time it was toward the end of the Great Depression and so the prices were very low. Anyway when my father brought it in to show us I was totally fascinated. I just thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen” (Dornbush Interview, 6-21-04).
Armand recalls, “When I delivered the drawing to the house, of course I had no knowledge that they had a daughter. I didn’t know until after we were married, but she was inside watching me through the window, through the curtain I guess.” He concludes, “I was sixteen, ya. Big year for me” (Dornbush Interview, 6-21-04).
