Joop and Francina de Beus-Bayards (95 and 96) from Best have known each other for 80 years and recently celebrated 70 years of marriage. Both ‘strong guys’ don’t see their platinum wedding as something very special. “Just keep breathing and give each other space,” Joop laughs.
Francina tells how it all started: “We are not originally from Brabant. I lived in Deventer and Joop in The Hague. During a summer sleepover in 1943 with an aunt and niece, I saw a nice boy. It turned out to be Joop, the neighbor’s son.” The teens hit it off. Sometimes Francina came to The Hague by train, but because the war was going on, she mainly wrote letters.
The love continued to grow and in 1948 Joop and Francina became engaged. Joop: “I was actually supposed to go to the Dutch East Indies, but that was canceled at the very last minute. I had already had all the injections when I was called to my commander. Because I had obtained my military motorcycle license, I had to go with a colleague to Amsterdam. Because they needed two orderlies there, a kind of errand boys. So I didn’t have to go to the Dutch East Indies. I wasn’t really sad about it.”
Homemade wedding dress
In 1950, Francina moved to The Hague, where they married three years later. A beautiful black and white photo shows a groom in a sharp suit and a bride in a spotless white dress and with a large bouquet. “I made the dress myself,” says Francina proudly.
Joop and Francina had two children together. The young family moved to Best in 1969, because Joop could work there as a specialist for color televisions. “I enjoyed working there very much, but in 1986 I was able to take early retirement. That’s what I did then. So I haven’t been working for about 37 years. As a result, we were able to travel a lot through Europe together. .We’ve always been real campers.”
‘Not so fast anymore’
Now that they are getting older, Joop and Francina notice that they have to make a lot of sacrifices. Joop: “If I have walked the sixty meters to the Albert Heijn once a day, I have already done enough.” His wife adds: “I will be 97 this year, so things won’t happen so quickly anymore.”
Joop would like to play his accordion more often, but after a few songs he is out of breath and his fingers hurt. “We are now mainly busy doing nothing.” And so they have plenty of time for their four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.