Before moving to Poland, Ponda and David lived in Portland where David had been a 28-year veteran EMT and firefighter with the City.  He retired from Station #11on Ocean Avenue where he’d served as Lieutenant, a rank he achieved after nine years with the department.  When Ponda remarks that David was the most decorated fireman in the City of Portland, David humbly replies that anyone else would have done the things he did.  David’s brother and several other relatives also have careers in the field of public safety.  David notes that during his early years with the fire department, they usually responded to one to three fires a day, but with the many advances in technology and communications, along with improved education, fires are fortunately not as prevalent today.  However, there are a lot of medical calls: over 1,000 a year.

Ponda and Dave Stanhope relax in their new home on Tripp

Being “high-school sweethearts,” Ponda and David were engaged to be married in their senior year until there was a “little misunderstanding”  just prior to graduation, when their relationship came to an abrupt halt.  David joined the Navy and went first to Pearl Harbor and then to San Diego to serve on the fleet tug, “Tawasa.”  Ponda ultimately joined the “league of homemakers,” living in Indiana until 1985, when she returned to Portland.  It was at that point that Ponda and David got a second chance and reunited.  Since returning to Maine, Ponda has worked in banking, dentistry and podiatry in Portland.  She’s now with Oxford Hills Foot and Ankle in South Paris.  David is currently working as a dispatcher for Nordex in Scarborough.