SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – When you step inside Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk, you may not realize you’re walking into a place built from one man’s everlasting love for his wife. It all started in the early 1900s, when Amedeo Obici needed to get a little lost before finding his future.

Amedeo Obici left his hometown of Orderzo, Italy, for the United States in 1913.

“He was only 12 years old. That was shortly after his father passed away, and his mother had three other children,” said Stephanie Jackson, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Sentara Obici. “So, her brother, who lived in Pennsylvania, invited Amedeo Obici to come and live with him. So, he left on a voyage going across the ocean and arrived in New York. He didn’t speak any English at all. He actually had his name pinned to his jacket and where he was going. So, he got on the train in New York, and he got off at the wrong train terminal in Pennsylvania, and that is actually how he met his wife, Louise.”

Louise introduced Amedeo to an Italian immigrant family who owned a grocery store that sold roasted peanuts. Amedeo was hooked.

“He went to live with his uncle (in Scranton, Pennsylvania). Not too long after that, he actually went back to where he had gotten off the train and where Louise, the daughter of the grocer, was, and he studied English there,” said Jackson. “He invited the rest of his family over when he was in Pennsylvania. In the early 1900s, he moved to Suffolk, Virginia. He was a very wise businessman, and he wanted to move close to the product. So, he knew that a lot of peanuts were grown in this region, and that is the foundation for Planters Peanuts.”

Many people may not realize the connection between Obici and Planters Peanuts, but George Birdsong, CEO of Birdsong Peanuts and former Obici Healthcare Foundation Chairman, is well aware.

“Mr. Obici asked our family to come to Suffolk in 1939, the year I happened to be born, and be his major supplier,” said Birdsong.

He says Amedeo was a big entrepreneur who liked to do good things for the community.

“His nature was always to do something to help the people in Suffolk, and particularly those that needed it.”

Birdsong says, even with all of his success, Amadeo was very humble and very dedicated to his wife. Jackson says the Obicis had a true love story, but they often had to deal with Louise’s health troubles.

“She had some chronic illnesses, and had been a patient often, but they were both philanthropists and gave a lot back to the community. So, it was very important to her to take care of the sick, and so he did that in his love for her,” said Jackson.

When Louise passed away in 1938, Amedeo decided to build a hospital in her name. So, the original Louise Obici Memorial Hospital was built. It opened in 1951, four years after Amedeo’s passing.

“He also left as part of his will and testament that he and his wife would be interred at the hospital,” said Jackson.

When the new Obici was built in 2002, crews quietly moved the Obicis from their resting place at the old hospital, and re-interred them in an exterior wall of the Healing Garden within the new hospital. It is resting place for a couple who, even in death, lets their love shine over our community.

“It’s important for people to realize that Suffolk wouldn’t have this wonderful hospital if it hadn’t been for Mr. Obici,” said Birdsong. “When Amedeo died, they did not have any children, and so the way I see it is he basically adopted Suffolk, left all his money to Suffolk, to be used for health purposes and for the needs of those in the Suffolk and the surrounding immediate area.”