I was recently invited to have brunch at Yogi’s by two super-friendly middle-aged couples. Between them, these couples had built strong marriages and had raised their children safely to adulthood. They had completed long successful careers, despite surprising job shifts. In addition, they had shepherded their parents through their last years and now are beginning their own retirement years.
Their life stories were peppered with humor and plenty of love. It was a joy talking with them. Our conversation lasted for a couple of hours, in fact. We had a lot of catching up to do since I had the two husbands, Jim Beaudoin and Jeff Colbert, in my fifth-grade classroom at Portage Central Elementary over 50 years ago.
I was a young teacher then and remember that I was learning right along with my students. I also remember that those students felt like family to me. It was amazing to be invited into their lives and hear about how they found their places in an adult world and to share our hopes and concerns for the future. Let me share a few things about each of these students.
Jim’s wife Brenda grew up and graduated from Gobles High School. They met at Sunset Lanes in Portage and were married in 1982. They now have three adult children, Kim, Jamie, and Andy, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild. Jim worked for the Kalamazoo County Road Commission for 31 years, where he served as a road supervisor for an area that included Schoolcraft, Prairie Ronde, Texas, and Oshtemo Townships. These days Brenda and Jim attend their grandkids’ sporting events, do gardening, and do some travelling. They also enjoy quiet evenings at home.
Jeff Colbert met his wife Chris, on a Youth for Christ trip during his junior year of high school. He still remembers stopping by my classroom at Central Elementary just across the street from Portage Central High School to tell me about his special friend. Even at that young age, they both knew they wanted to get married and raise a family together. Jeff and Chris are the proud parents of two successful adult children, Cory and Kelly, who also were Portage Central High School graduates. Jeff spent many years as the plant manager at Advanced Plastics Corporation (APC) in Schoolcraft before it closed in 2005. Chris, meanwhile, worked as an executive assistant. However, her real full-time job was everything else, raising their kids and looking after aging parents, often at the same time. Jeff says, “that type of quiet strength does not get talked about enough.” When APC closed, Jeff and Chris did not hesitate to pack up and start a new chapter in Texas, where Jeff continued his career in the aerospace industry until he recently retired.
When Jeff shared some of his journey during the pandemic in Texas, we all chimed in with our own pandemic memories. This ended our chat with a serious conversation about the lifelong lessons we have learned from that time.
Life circumstances took me away from teaching early in my career, but I did a lot of things over the years within the South County area. I had the pleasure of being on the Kalamazoo County Road Commission when Jim was there and bumped into Jeff in Schoolcraft a couple of times. Jeff was a classmate of Sheri and Mark Louis at PCHS. Sheri is now the director of Generous Hands as many readers would know. Not long ago Jim noticed the Senior Moment column in the South County News and contacted Kathy Forsythe, the editor and publisher, who gave me Jim’s contact information. That’s when I learned that Jeff and Chris were at Sandy Pines camping this summer. Hence, the long breakfast and fun reunion. It took me back to an extremely rewarding time of my life. It assured me that the seeds we plant as we grow old do bloom beautifully. It’s a gift I will always treasure.
