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 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.”
Sixty years ago yesterday, Ronald made Carol his wife.
When they were married, an older member of the congregation* gave them advice patterned after his initials: “Increase and Multiply.”
It took a few years for them to begin, but after Ronald came back from Korea, the increasing began in earnest.
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.
Increase and multiply, he told them. And multiply they did.
“You know what the best thing I ever did for you was?” Grandpa asks his grandchildren now.
We know the answer and respond on cue, “You married Grandma.”
Grandpa smiles contentedly. Yes, that’s the best thing he ever did for us.
This grandchild could add a bit more: He stayed married to Grandma.
It’s a romance that began eighty years ago, was sealed in marriage sixty years ago, and that continues on to this day.
It’s a romance that has blessed multitudes, not the least the 70+ progeny of Ronald and Carol Cook.
*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 :-)
What a sweet couple and story!
This makes me want to cry. What a sweet, sweet story. Very well-written, Rebekah! Thank God for the heritage of faithfulness that we’ve been blessed with.
And when Dad asked the question today at the celebration, he added a new question. What is a better thing that someone did for you that I never could? Jesus died for our sins – a better thing that only He could do. And Dad took the opportunity to share that with all of his family gathered there. I, for one, was blessed.