She’s a classic: Audrey Bonnell running strong at 91

ROCK FALLS – In an era when some could work but for various reasons choose not to, Audrey Bonnell is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Bonnell, 91, is still going strong as an employee at the family business, Bonnell Repair & Towing.

Each weekday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and again from 7 to noon on Saturday, Audrey can be found in the office at 400 First Ave., doing whatever needs to be done to make the operation run smoothly. She won’t tear apart a diesel engine like her son, Bob Jr., or the other mechanics, but she handles all of the bookkeeping, banking and answering phones.

“I can’t see myself just sitting and doing nothing,” Audrey said. “There are a lot of things I can’t do now, but I do what I can do. I tell people, ‘You can get older, but don’t get old.’”

In the winter, Audrey even gets out a snow shovel and handles that chore, provided it’s not too big of a drift.

“I can do some of it faster than you do with a snowblower,” Audrey said.

Bonnell Repair & Towing has been at its current location since 1984, and Bob Jr. has been operating it since 1997, when he retired after 20 years in the Navy. He learned the car repair craft from his father, Bob Sr., and passed on those skills to each of his boys – Paul, Robert, Christopher and Victor – who each worked at the shop. Victor, 14, is going to be a freshman at Prophetstown High School in the fall.

“It’s a blessing to have my parents around, especially being helpful at the business,” Bob Jr. said. “My dad, when I get the mower up, he’ll do the mowing. Mom takes care of all the administrative parts, and in the past picked up the kids from school, even though we live in the Prophetstown/Lyndon area. We’re just a working family, which is a dying breed.”

Bob Sr., 89, is the “armchair commando” of the operation, while his mother does a lot of the jobs that allow him and his staff to concentrate on mechanical jobs, he said.

“I’ve got enough with everything we’ve got going on here. She takes up a lot of the slack for me. I don’t have to run to the bank. I don’t have to worry about administrative. I don’t have to run to the phone. Everything’s a blessing.”

Bob Sr. recalls a time when his wife came to the aid of the Rock Falls Police Department. It was when the business was located across the street, perhaps 5 or 6 decades ago, before Audrey even worked in the shop.

“I’d be out on a service call, and the police would need a fan belt or a radiator hose or something like that,” Bob Sr. said. “They’d call the house, she’d take it, and then she’d go down to the garage and get them the hose or the belt, whatever it was they needed. She’d even give them tools, and they’d make sure we got the tools back.

“Whatever time of night it was, she’d do that if I was gone. The police sergeant thought the world of her. He said, ‘You’ve got 1 in a thousand’.”

It’s not always one big, happy family at the garage; sometimes they get on each other’s nerves, but that’s just fine, Audrey said.

“You have your ups and you have your downs. On any job, whether it’s family or not, you have contention. You just have to roll with it.”

For fun, Audrey is an avid reader. She picks up books at thrift shops, then passes them on to friends who are also readers. And there’s always housework to be done.

A lot of her time, though, is spent at the garage, and she has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. Her health has been good, outside of a few falls here and there, and as long as she’s able, she’ll continue to work.

“The good Lord’s got a plan for me, so I’ll hang in there,” she said.

Bonnell Repair & Towing has thrived in its current location for nearly 4 decades, and Audrey is happy to do her to keep it humming along.

“If you treat people right, do the best you can, stand behind your work and respect people, that’s all that counts,” Audrey said.

“That’s the way of life, and business is the same thing. We’re old school.”

Brian Weidman

Brian Weidman

Brian Weidman was a sports reporter for Sauk Valley News