We were both members of the great Class of ’67. We met as sophomores and started dating the summer of 1966. We were engaged on August 6, 1967 and got married exactly one year later. We spent our honeymoon in Daytona Beach.
We were Ribault sweethearts and are still sweethearts after 40+ years of marriage. We never had children, but we did have 2 sweet dogs. We had Penny, our little beagle, for 13 years. She was a wedding gift from Barry, so we started out our married life as a “family of 3.” Shortly after losing Penny, Barry surprised me with a little brown dachshund named Fritz. We had him for 17 years. We also feel blessed that God gave us such a wonderful family, as well as 5 godchildren and 2 grand-godchildren.
Barry has been in the ministry for 36 years. He is currently the senior pastor of Sanlando United Methodist Church in Longwood, Florida. He is planning to retire in 2013. I worked for Barnett Bank (now Bank of America) for 23 years before retiring in 1998.
We have fond memories of our days at Ribault. We have attended several of the Reunions but, unfortunately, missed the one in 2007. We hope to make it to the 45th Reunion in 2012 but, if for some reason we can’t, we hope to definitely be there for the 50th in 2017!
In closing, we’d like to share I Corinthians 13: 7 & 13: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. . .And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” May God bless you, your sweethearts and loved ones on Valentine’s Day and always.