In 2017, John and Ann Betar celebrated their 85th wedding anniversary at the ages of 106 and 102, in Fairfield, Connecticut among family and friends. The celebration included the presentation of a Ford Roadster, the model car in which John Better took Ann Shawah on their first date.
Can you believe it? Eighty-five years together. That is a true and lasting love.
John Betar immigrated to America in 1921 with his brother and settled with their father in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After completing grammar school, he took a job peddling fruit in Greenwich. He would see Ann on her way to school every day.
Though Ann had been promised to a man twenty years her senior in an arranged marriage, she fell in love with John and after only days of dating, they eloped in Harrison, New York on November 25, 1932 at the ages of 21 and 17.
Their elopement evoked anger from their families, with Ann’s aunt telling her father that the marriage would never last.
In 1938, John Better opened the grocery store, Betar’s Market, in the south end of Bridgeport, with Ann working at home, caring for their home and family. They raised five children. In their later years, Ann discovered a talent for painting with oils and watercolor and there favorite pastime became cooking soup together.
John always told people, “the only arguments we’ve ever had were over cooking”. Ann didn’t necessarily agree with this.
Their family grew to fifteen grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren.
What a legacy they are leaving behind. It warms my heart to see such a true and lasting love.
God’s Blessings on them, their family and the legacy they leave behind.
Sending you blessings of love and gratitude from Sterrett, Alabama!
Charity
Copyright © Charity M. Richey-Bentley 2018
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