![\"Grandma](\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/images\/20110614-02.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs two-year-old Ronald sat on the Sunday School bench, his attention was arrested by the girl beside him. He looked over and thought to himself, “That Carol P is mighty pretty. When I grow up, she’s gonna be my girlfriend.”<\/p>\n
One week later, he again found himself preoccupied with the girl on the bench beside him. This time, though, his thoughts took a different turn: “That Carol P is mighty pretty. When I grow up, she’s gonna be my wife<\/i>.”<\/p>\n
Sixty years ago yesterday, Ronald made Carol his wife.<\/p>\n
When they were married, an older member of the congregation* gave them advice patterned after his initials: “Increase and Multiply.”<\/p>\n
It took a few years for them to begin, but after Ronald came back from Korea, the increasing began in earnest. <\/p>\n
Today, Ronald and Carol boast twelve sons and daughters, ten sons-and-daughters-in-law, 43 grandchildren, seven grandchildren-in-law, and a beginning spattering of great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Increase and multiply, he told them. And multiply they did.<\/p>\n
“You know what the best thing I ever did for you was?” Grandpa asks his grandchildren now.<\/p>\n
We know the answer and respond on cue, “You married Grandma.”<\/p>\n
Grandpa smiles contentedly. Yes, that’s the best thing he ever did for us.<\/p>\n
This grandchild could add a bit more: He stayed<\/i> married to Grandma.<\/p>\n
It’s a romance that began eighty years ago, was sealed in marriage sixty years ago, and that continues on to this day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It’s a romance that has blessed multitudes, not the least the 70+ progeny of Ronald and Carol Cook. <\/p>\n
*My memory is a bit fuzzy about the details of the “Increase and Multiply” story. I trust my aunts will set the record straight when I err :-)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As two-year-old Ronald sat on the Sunday School bench, his attention was arrested by the girl beside him. He looked over and thought to himself, “That Carol P is mighty pretty. When I grow up, she’s gonna be my girlfriend.” One week later, he again found himself preoccupied with the girl on the bench beside … Read more The best thing I ever did for you<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}