Just 46-years ago Friday, December 27, Marty Becker and Teresa Burkholder were married at the Bonners Ferry United Methodist Church. The same church Teresa, daughter Mikkel and granddaughter Reagan were baptized in; same church where her beloved dad, Jim, had his funeral service. Memories from birth to earth.
Marty was the son of a Southern Idaho farmer and Teresa the daughter of a Northern Idaho logger and lunch lady. After getting married, their dream home was going to be his single wide trailer in Robinson Trailer Court in Moscow, Idaho, as he continued his veterinary school studies at Washington State University.
Marty was 24, Teresa 23.
Their first date was St. Patrick’s Day 1978. He asked her to marry him that August and he wanted to get married ASAP (as soon as possible). Teresa wanted to wait and get married the following summer.
“Why was I in a hurry?” Marty asked. “I wanted her to move in with me. To share a bed every night. But she wouldn’t live with me until we were married. Oh, how times have changed!”
Nobody thought the marriage would last. Nobody. Teresa estimates she kissed 100 guys in college. Marty knows of about a dozen just in his fraternity. He was crazy wild, elected social chairman of his fraternity for good reason.
The couple surprised everyone, and they’ve only grown closer day-to-day, now knocking on the door of 50-years together.
The Women’s auxiliary of the BFUMC catered the food for their wedding reception held upstairs at American Legion Post 55 in Bonners Ferry, their hometown.
“One special memory from the wedding was the moonshine Teresa’s grandpa Norm brought from Montana,” Marty said. “Honest to God, it was in Mason Jars. All I can say about the white lightning is that a) I was really sick on my wedding night at the Lantern Hotel (four-rat rating), b) it got all of my fraternity brothers/groomsman leg-less, and c) made me feel sick for our entire honeymoon in Vegas.”
Marty truly feels beyond blessed to be married to Teresa.
“We laugh, we tease, we taunt,” he said. “We are loving, loyal and probably overly generous. Teresa has an amazing faith and I’m trying. We love our family. We are both crazy about animals. We love our neighbors and our community. Teresa is my heartbeat. Beautiful on the outside with an inner light that radiates her spirit. As people have said hundred of times since we’ve been married: Teresa is beautiful and I’m lucky. True that.”
The only disappointment, Marty said, is that despite a December 27 anniversary, Santa never brought him any extra presents.
Not even the 1964 Vintage GI JOE Brown *Life Like Hair* Beard Scar 12″ Action Figure he asked Santa for every year until he was 34. At $180 on eBay, Teresa ain’t getting it for him, either.
“He never got me a shoop-shoop hula hoop, either,” she said.