A lifelong love story
Part of this legacy website includes the beautiful love and devotion of my parents. Two beautiful souls bound to meet by pure chance, but fell in love at first glance.
My father graduated from High School in 1963. Then within that same year, he met “Sweet Bea”, and this is where their lifelong love story had its beginnings.
My mother had been working in a small town corner store called Caricos. My father was driving my grandmother and great aunt to the store when my father’s little brother, Tom Lawson, was tricked by my father to run into the store for candy, only to obtain her phone number.
My father had a very heartfelt kindness in his eyes; he was quiet but spoke up with strong conviction when a situation arose. He also has his “slapstick” comedic jokester side too. And oh, how he loved my mother! They were inseparable from the beginning.
My mother finally graduated in 1964 from Fairborn High School in Greene County, Ohio. My father was present at her graduation, as he had graduated in the prior years……
My parents continued dating, which eventually led to an engagement, and of course, then marriage on July 12, 1964. They would have celebrated their 60th anniversary this coming year, 2024.
My parents began their married lives together by moving into a 3-bedroom, 1-bath home with about a 1/2 acre of land, located out of state Route 40, just outside a little town called New Carlisle, Ohio.
Because it was such a rural area, there had not even been any streetlights
put up. Therefore, it was pitch black at sundown. Plus, not many homes had
been built in this particular farming area back in the 60’s. During the era
of my parents, a starter home only cost them around $11,000! Can you
imagine! My mother loved her rose bushes, butterflies, hummingbirds,
cardinals, and especially her pear tree in the front yard that still blossoms to
this day.
My mother had always kept what we would call now a “scrapbook” of every milestone of their lives together from the day they met and throughout their married life. Just as she did with me throughout my life’s milestones. Growing up, my father was a hardworking, middle class, simplified man who normally wasn’t one to speak about his feelings, unless it was with my mother. He was the calm voice of reason, and we knew he loved us with all his heart.
