Leonard Becker met his wife, Betty Jane, at a family wedding, when his sister married Betty Jane’s cousin. Leonard was 13, Betty Jean a few years younger. “I turned around to see who was in the audience,” Leonard said Friday at his Alii Drive home. “She smiled at me. Believe it or not, I fell in love with her with just a smile.” It’s a love that has lasted, from those early years, when he would ride his bicycle by her house to catch a glimpse of her, to high school, when he would walk her home, to April 5, when they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. He’s now 89, she’s 87, but they still live on their own, in the home they purchased to share with their family. For years, the couple hosted Sunday afternoon lunches on their oceanfront lawn, with Betty cooking for the entire clan. The couple now has three children, seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild and another on the way. Leonard has never been shy about expressing his affection for Betty, their granddaughter Shellie Norman said. “You just never had eyes for anybody but Grandma,” Norman said to Leonard during a recent conversation. “We’ll be having a conversation and he’ll stop and say, ‘Isn’t she beautiful?’” Subscribers get the full story by West Hawaii Today reporter Erin Miller here: westhawaiitoday/news/local-news/love-first-sight-tender-age-leads-tender-70-year-union
Posted on: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 20:05:00 +0000
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