Four years ago I posted this blog, feeling grateful for my lifetime partner, dear, precious, faithful Bob Beekman. Today I am reposting it with even greater gratitude and a few more photos for the fun of it.
PARTNERS
Partners add dimension
To our self-focused lives.
They draw us out
To form a bigger circle.
If we are blessed indeed
With a loving partner who
Accentuates our strengths
And helps us build up
Our areas of weakness,
Then we have cause to
Celebrate with abandon!
Everyday is a gift
Of celebration with
My life-time partner,
Bob!
I wish for you the blessing of a “Bob” in your life!! Have a blessed Friday and come back and see us again this weekend.
Love, JanBeek
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians says love endures all things. Thank God, Lordy, Lordy, my Bob certainly has endured all things! What a blessing that he put up with me all these 60+ years!!
Happy 59th Anniversary today to my sweetheart, Bob, my life’s partner!!
February 11, 1962
Bob & his brother, Bill… The week when we first met… What a ham!!
While we were dating, and engaged, I was bridesmaid in Bob’s sister, Bonnie’s wedding.
Our engagement was “trying times”
Bob & I both have a deep faith. It was God who put us together. It was our faith and prayer that kept us together. During our engagement, he was in Germany, in the army. I was in college, wanting to enjoy college life. I broke up with him. But, God knew we belonged together. He made sure we got back together again! (Thank You, God!) And He helped us stick it out all these years through good times and bad. I’m so grateful!!
In the car – after the wedding – headed for the reception
We were married nearly three years before I became pregnant
There’s DeDe and Ty with Bob – -blowing out his birthday candles
Our children, Ty & DeAna, have been such a blessing in our lives. Thank You, God, for the gift of these children!! During our early married years (after the first 8 months in Germany), we lived in Turlock (for a year) and then San Francisco and San Mateo. Bob worked for Shell Oil and then went back to college (San Francisco State). He earned his teaching credential and then coached wrestling and taught Driver’s Ed at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, CA.
Bob curled his hair when he became a beekeeper in the 70’s. We had lots of fun on weekends in the winter going skiing together.
We moved from the Bay Area back to the San Joaquin Valley in CA. Bob took over his Dad’s beekeeping business when his father retired. Did you know that beekeepers with hair that is close their head (hair that gets greasy or sweaty) are targets for bee stings? With a perm, the bees couldn’t get to the scalp.
You ask why he didn’t just wear a hat like most beekeepers do? Bob hates wearing a hat! He didn’t wear protective gloves either. Those are topics for another day!
I was teaching in Hughson, Ceres, and Modesto, CA in those days.
Then I moved into administration for a dozen years. Principal and Curriculum Coordinator
Time passed. Gray hair started to change our appearance!
We both claim we were the one who loved the most!!
After retirement, we were able to travel. I dyed my hair for awhile before I learned to embrace the gray. (That’s a good topic for another day)
Our Daughter, De
In 1987, our daughter, DeAna, married Andre’, a Swiss (the first cousin of our AFS exchange student).
She wore my wedding dress 25 years after I did!
I have written about De & Andre’s fairy tale story in the past. She moved to Switzerland when our first grandchild was “in the hopper.” That was nearly 30 years ago! Every other year we would go to visit them (so, no, we didn’t really wait ’til retirement to travel … we just got to do more of it after Bob left beekeeping and we moved here to Montana).
Thank you, Diana Housel, for this gorgeous photo of our dear Montana!!
This is the village of Vissoie, Switzerland where DeDe and Andre’ live now. Andre’ and De have three boys. Our Swiss grandsons are Mike, Nick & Chris. We hope to travel there this October to spend time with them. Virus, be gone!!!
You will recall, they have a restaurant there! We NEED to go and see it in person!!
Our Son, Ty
Our son, Ty, blessed our family in 1989 by marrying his sweetheart, Monika. The two of them adopted four children. Sam, Hope, Jordan & Faith are young adults now. I’ve written about them here on my blog. Our lives are so enriched by this extended family. Ty & Moni live in CA, near Lake Tahoe. This picture of them was taken of them at our youngest granddaughter, Faith’s wedding. We hope to travel to CA to be with them this year in June. Virus be gone!!
Pleeeease God, help us be able to travel to CA in June! I need to see my darling great-granddaughter, Cosette!
Life is Full
Life is full of love and joy and promises for a bright tomorrow. We have so much for which to be grateful. We know we are blessed to have one another and to have lived into our 80s and remained married to that same partner for nearly 60 years.
Embrace Marriage, my friends! And EMBRACE YOUR LIFE’S PARTNER if you are fortunate as I am to have one!
Today, February 11, 2021, our 59th anniversary, starts our 60th year of marriage, doesn’t it? When a baby turns one, they are starting their 2nd year on earth. Yes, that’s the way it works! Sixty years with one life partner!! I am extremely blessed!
With God every day is full of simple delights and unexpected joys.
Couples that pray together, stay together. And it helps to do other things together, too!
On Super Bowl Sunday, we had a Pizza Party. We made our pizza together. Turned out pretty well! We plan to keep on doing things together as long as the Good Lord allows…
The road is long… and We’ve come a long way together.
With God’s grace and blessings, we will continue to travel this road of life together for many more years to come. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future… and we let Him lead us.
Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart Bob. I love you! Wherever you lead me, I will follow… I’ll go with you, with you, all the way!
Thanks for visiting JanBeek today. Have a blessed February 11th. See ya tomorrow.
Do you have long-time friends for whom you are eternally grateful?
These are our friends, Cecilia and Tom. We are visiting them in Camarillo, CA. What a grand way to begin the new year … with long-time friends, touring the gorgeous Camarillo area and visiting their fantastic Camarillo Library! Cecilia and I worked together in Ceres, CA in the 80’s and 90’s. I love and respect her – and treasure the opportunity I had to work professionally with her. She is a long-time friend with whom I have stayed in connection through FaceBook.
How do you stay in touch with long-time friends?
This is my long-time friend, MaryFran. She was my neighbor in the 50’s. We were the very best of friends… maid-of-honor in each other’s weddings. Then we lost touch with one another. Sometimes that happens. For no particular reason. Friends can be for a reason or a season or a life-time. And when you are true friends, time just slips away and dissolves when you get back together again after years of separation. I called her when we were in CA within an hour of her home. At her gracious invitation, we just dropped by. What a gift to catch up with one another again! Long-time friends are forever friends.
How do you reconnect with friends from whom you have been separated?
This is my long-time friend, Rosalie, with our daughter, DeDe. Our daughter lives in Switzerland. She flew to California to surprise us for her daddy’s 80th birthday Dec. 29th. Rosalie in like family. She and her husband, Mike, drove hundreds of miles to surprise Bob for his birthday. Forever in my heart… no matter how far apart! We met Rosalie and Mike in 1963 when Bob & I were moving our meager belongings into an apartment in the San Francisco area. We were instant friends.
Do you have those kinds of soul sisters and brothers who just seem to have been destined to be in your life? If so, count your blessings. Know that whenever you can be together, your ties will tighten – and your blessings will increase. These are the kinds of friends you’d want at your bedside when you breathe your last breath. They are the ones who would fly across the continent to be with you in a heart beat if you needed them. And we feel the same way about them! What treasures!!
Do you have new friends who are long-time friends?
When I first met Terry, I knew she was my soul sister! Like my meeing with Rosalie more than 50 years ago, Terry was one of those people I felt I must have known in a prior life! We met in Ennis, Montana about a decade ago. She comes every summer, but lives in California during the rest of the year. When Terry is in Montana, we get together with her and her husband, Jim, as often as we possibly can. When we visit California, we are sure to drop by their place and spend precious time together. Our hearts connect.
Whether they are long-time friends, or new friends who feel long-time,
our lives are greatly enriched by friendships.
I would not be complete without them.
I am sometimes asked, how do you make so many friends?
The answer is a simple cliche’:
To have a friend, you must be a friend.
Through thick and thin… be there for one another!
I am grateful for my bestest buddy, Marcie!
Always there for me… always supportive.
