Blue Anchor's aweigh?

Ed Arnold is legally blind. His wife, Joan, suffered a mild stroke last March, broke her hip in June and has a difficult time walking. But as they have done for almost 25 years, the couple continues to operate the smallest motel in Plymouth.

The Blue Anchor Motel on Lincoln Street (next to Town Hall) began in the late 1930s as a boarding house. Now it is a four-unit motel that over the years has charmed thousands of visitors with its simple rooms, 1950s-era bathroom tiles, and handmade furniture. But many guests say the Arnolds, not the motel's trappings, are what make their stays at the Blue Anchor so memorable.

Linda Fowler of New York recalls how the couple's personal touch made her feel a bit guilty the year she and her husband failed to call to say they would be arriving later than scheduled.

''They said, 'Gee, we were really concerned. We were worried about you,' " Fowler said. The Arnolds' nurturing nature has drawn the Fowlers to the motel annually for about 15 years, but the 2005 season may be the Blue Anchor's last.

The Arnolds, who have been married for almost 60 years, are now dealing with the hardships of old age, and contemplating retirement. They rely on Meals on Wheels volunteers. Ed Arnold struggles when he climbs the steps to the motel's units. Neither of them can drive. And notes posted outside the motel's office let guests know when the Arnolds are at one of their doctors' appointments.

''We haven't really decided yet if we're going to close or not, but we're getting kind of old," said Ed, who turns 80 next month. ''I'm legally blind. [Joan's] right arm and leg don't work. So we're quite a combo."

And running a motel is demanding work, Ed said. ''Even if you have someone working for you, you're stuck here all the time. Your summers are shot."

But the Arnolds are reluctant to leave a business in which they have invested so much personal history. The Blue Anchor got its start around 1939, when Joan's parents, Dean and Betty Eldridge, began renting rooms in their home. They advertised it as ''The House with Colonial Charm," and charged $1 per person a night. In the late 1940s, they built the first separate unit.

In 1957, when the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, arrived from England, Plymouth became more of a tourist destination after years of largely being a stop on the road to Cape Cod. The demand for rooms for visitors increased, and the Eldridges decided to build three more cottage-style units in their backyard.

Ed Arnold was a Navy petty officer third class in January 1946, when his ship paid a visit to Plymouth. He met Joan at a social, and they fell in love almost immediately.

''We knew each other five weeks, had four dates and eloped," Ed said with some pride in his gravelly voice.

He was barely 21 and she was 18.

''I was a mere slip of a child," said Joan, 77.

The short courtship dismayed Joan's parents, who wanted a real wedding for their daughter, not a quick ceremony by a justice of the peace in New Hampshire. While Ed loves telling the story of their whirlwind romance, Joan is less eager to relive it, for fear people will think she was a young girl ''in trouble."

''He has to go and tell all these awful stories," she said, chuckling. ''It sounds as though I had to get married. At the time, everybody was" eloping, she said, with World War II barely six months in the past.

After they married, the Arnolds moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to Ed's parents. They had two children, Natalie and Brian, and moved the family around the country until they returned to Plymouth in the 1970s. One spring day, 17-year-old Brian climbed a 30-foot tower supporting high-voltage wires and was electrocuted.

The tragedy led to another move from Plymouth, but the Arnolds returned for good in 1980, when Joan's mother became too old to run the motel by herself. Since then, they have welcomed tourists from all over the world.

Maine resident Christopher Sample, 55, has stayed at the Blue Anchor twice. He first traveled to Plymouth because it had the only library in New England with the rare World War II films he wanted to see. He and his wife, Judy, 65, chose the motel after they overheard a tourist agent tell another couple about it.

The other couple -- middle-age, ''sweaters over the shoulder" types -- seemed more interested in a chain, Judy said. But the Blue Anchor was perfect for the Samples. ''It's a time machine for me," Judy said. ''As I get older and the world changes around me, it becomes stranger, and this place was familiar."

Christopher's next visit to the motel was to cut down overhanging tree limbs for the Arnolds, in exchange for a night's stay. ''Without someone else to come in and do the work, I would think they're nearing the end of the run at the place," he said.

The Arnolds say they have yet to decide what will happen in October, when their tourist season ends, but Ed said the signs that the Blue Anchor should close for good are growing stronger. Recently, he was finishing a shave when Joan walked into the bathroom and sat down, he recalled. He asked her what was wrong, but she did not answer. He asked again, but she remained quiet and slumped her shoulders. ''I asked her, 'Do you know who I am?' " She said no.

Doctors said Joan's blood pressure had fallen precipitously. Ed called it a ''little setback."

''Never a dull moment," he said.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com