Monday, March 10, 2025
Benny and I have been friends since about 1960 (are we that old???) when we were together in the fifth grade at Frank Antonides School in West Long Branch. Sometime in the early 70's when I came home for either break or summer from Ohio University, I met Bev when she was in WLB, so I've known her for almost 55 years. When I met her the first time she instantly became a friend, and when I brought the woman who would be my wife, Dot, to visit my mom IN WLB, Benny, Bev, Dot and I became good friends. We were at each other's weddings. Whenever Dot and I came to NJ we usually got to see Benny and Bev. Before Dot's death in 2011, Benny and Bev often stopped to visit us in Maryland on their way to or from Florida, and even when Dot was gone Benny and Bev made it their business to continue stopping by when they passed through the area.
Probably the most memorable instance from our friendship was at Christmas time in 1984. Our twin girls had been born in May of that year, and when we visited Bev was pregnant. I looked at her and she looked like Dot had before Julie and Marci were born. I asked her if she was sure she was having only one baby because she looked just like Dot had. I can still feel the ache in my side where Dot's elbow landed when I asked that!! But a month later Benny called to say that indeed Bev had given birth to twins---Jim and Joe.
A few years later, Dot and I and Julie and Marci went with Benny, Bev, Jim and Joe to the Twins Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio.
.
Other than my family members, I've known Bev longer than anybody else in my life outside of Benny. She will be greatly missed.
