Several days ago, while sitting at the fire pit at David’s house, a man sat down next to me and we chatted a bit. I recognized him as Eva’s boss, Jacob. We had quite a conversation.
He told me how his family got into the baking business and opened their restaurants. The bakers go back five generations and started in the Netherlands before moving to the United States. They operated in Holland, Michigan for several years, sold the business on a land contract, moved to Florida, and got the business back when the new owner couldn’t keep the bakery going.
We spoke about family and friends and then, out of the blue, he asked me, “What’s the best investment you ever made?”
No one’s ever asked me that before.
I thought for a moment and said, “I married my wife.” And then I pointed at the assembled crowd and said, “I got all of this from that.” He liked my answer. I’m not sure anyone said that before.
The older I get the less I think about the money I have. I’m not rich but I’m comfortable. I can do what I want whenever I want. Ruth and I worked together to get to where we got. We accomplished several goals with parenthood being our primary focus. Sometimes we neglected each other in the process. We both could have invested more time in one another, but we focused on our three children instead. I regret some of it and recognize all of it.
The things we bought helped provide the experience we wanted for our family. Being in the education business, we saw how some families floundered when marriages failed. We didn’t want that for our three.
Considering how things progressed, we did pretty well. Some would say very.
I’ve been going through a lot of paperwork in my Michigan condo this week. While I can’t remember every page, I’ve curated some interesting things. I ran across my portion of Ruth’s Celebration of Life we held in Florida in December of 2022. The passage below were my final words that day. If I would have thought about it, I could have shared them with Jacob at the campfire.
Our first child, David, was born on March 30, 1975, and Elizabeth two years later. Michael’s birth in 1978 completed our family. None were planned but all were welcomed.
Our mantra was to do things, go places, and expose our kids to as many things as we could afford. Ruth decided the what, and I focused on the how.
Our moments grew with our family. As it expanded, so did our joy. Lindsay, Kate and Sutton married in, and they in turn gave us three wonderful grandchildren. Brady, Eva, and young Jackson James.
We took several trips together, and held talent shows, lip-sync contests, went on horseback trail rides and conducted an afternoon water ballet to spice the trips up a bit. Just being part of the Tebo clan wasn’t enough for Ruth and me. We wanted each member to be an active participant. And they didn’t let us down. We shared a lot of moments.
We still do. I’m a lucky man.