ChurCh DireCtory

St.Luke’sEpiscopalChurch

SUNDAYS

8:00AMinpersonserviceinthechurch

10:30AMinpersonserviceinthechurch (livestreamed) www.stlukespowhatan.org

AllareWelcome

Formoreinformationvisitwww.stlukespowhatan.org

Route711atThreeBridgeRoad794-6953

E vergreen C ommunity C hurch (PcA) Proclaiming&PracticingtheGospelofJesusChrist WorshipServiceat10:00AM Meetingat2210BattersonRoad,Powhatan.

PastorNickKrauss

ECCPCA .ORG 598-8844

SundaySchool 10AM

WorshipService11AM

PastorJohnEngle 603-933-0141 3540OldBuckinghamRd. www.pmchurch.net

1801HuguenotTrail

SundayWorship10am

BryanM.Holt,Pastor

804-378-3607 www.EmmausChristianChurch.org https://www.facebook.com/2emmaus/

Genito Presbyterian Church

2910GenitoRd.Powhatan, VA 372-9074

WorshipwithusthisSunday Churchservice @ 9:30AM Sundayschool @ 10:30AM

Providence Presbyterian Church

“WorshipingandWitnessing inWesternPowhatan since1825”

WorshipService11:00am

AllAreWelcome! 598-4970

Located1950RidgeRoad (Rt.627)

M ee tingSundays inFar mville, ForkUnio n, M idlothian, PowhatanandOnline. Visitpcc wired.net fo r servicestimes& lo cat ions 598 -1174pccwired.net

MountCalvary

BaptistChurch

2020RedLaneRoad Powhatan,VA23139

Pastor,LarryB.Collins

SundaySchool9:45a.m.

Sunday Worship 11:00a.m.

WednesdayBibleStudy

7:30p.m. Office804-598-2398

LivingAsChrist’sDisciplesWithinOur HeartsandBeyondOurDoors

PowhatanChristian Fellowship

SundayMorningWorship 11:00a.m.

SundaySchool10:00a.m.

WednesdayNight7:30p.m.

3308 PleasantsRoad, 1/4mileoffofRoute711 RussCress, Pastor 598-0733

St.John Neumann

Catholic Church

Rev.WalterG.Lewis,Pastor

Saturday -5p.m.

Sunday -8:30a.m.&11a.m. 598-3754

„ Sexual orientation: While it was not a lengthy topic of discussion, the school board did prioritize making it clear that “instructional materials shall not be designated as sexually explicit based solely on sexual orientation of the characters therein.”

„ Parent involvement: Hurt argued for and received agreement about adding a line that encouraged parents they can exercise their right to view any instructional material used as part of their student’s curricula.

2480 batterson road, Powhatan. t he cost is $20 for an outside parking space and $30 for inside the church’s hall with an 8-foot table. For more information or to purchase a space, email a manda Mc d onough at amandamcdonough72@yahoo.com.

Please see CALENDAR, Page A7

804-746-1235

2253RossonRd. JustoffRt.13intheVillage 598-4438

Worship: 8:30&10:30am www.powhatanumc.us WeekdayPreschool(ages2-5) 598-6090 www.sjnpowhatan.org

LocatedbehindFlatRock

VillageShopping Center

“My parents met her and right away. They were trying to foster the marriage, which tells you they weren’t real happy with my prior selections,” he said. “I went in the army less than a year after we met and went over to Korea. We never saw each other much during my stay in the service. During that time my parents made sure she didn’t have anything else much to do.”

Pat, who transferred to UVA while Ray was gone, said she was aware he was better than his first impression and she did love him, particularly after meeting his parents. Ray was deployed to Korea from November 1966 to December 1967.

“The minute I came home from Korea we went down to Miller and Rhoads and bought a ring,” Ray said.

The couple married two months after Pat graduated from college.

Parenthood vs. being a couple: Pat and Ray were married 11 years before becoming parents. At first they were focused on their careers. Then, when they decided to give parenthood a try, it didn’t happen for them naturally. So, they decided to adopt and give a child a home. That child was 5-year-old Mark and as soon as the Deweys met him, they knew he was their child.

“He has been a wonderful, loving son. It was a challenge after being alone for 11 years that all of a sudden we had a child who walked and talked and did all kinds of things to make sure we wanted a child,” Pat said.

Life did change when two became three, but one goal they set out to achieve was to never let their son get between them as a couple.

“I don’t mean that meanly. I mean if something was going on, if I was having a problem, I would sit down with Pat before we went to Mark and she was the same way,” Ray said.

“Maybe that was a fact of we were being older and we had an established relationship. We were friends, we were partners before we brought another little being into our family,” she agreed.

Building traditions: Pat introduced one of the most cherished traditions into their family – taking trips to the Outer Banks, which was a tradition from her own childhood. Ray grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and was used to the Jersey Shore, but since they went to the Outer Banks the first year of their marriage, they have been going back every chance they got.

“I took her to the Jersey Shore for our honeymoon. She was not impressed,” he said. “Then she took me to the Outer Banks and I had never seen anything like that.”

Facing problems: Ray was ready to get real and say right off the bat what saved their marriage is he quit drinking in 1991. Pat and Mark sat down with him one day and told him he had a problem, and they wouldn’t continue as a family until he quit.

“What that did was open the avenues of communication. They had started getting a little muddy because it is hard to deal with a guy that is always drunk. They had that talk to me and I quite frankly was comfortable at the end of it and I knew what I had to do. And since then we have had no problems with communication,” Ray said. “If you said, ‘what have you done that you would hold up to other people that are having problems,’ I would say you have to sit down and talk it out.”

To add to that, Pat said the strength of their relationship is that she and Ray are friends. They talked before the interview and agreed they didn’t have any magic bullets or words of wisdom, just their story.

“I don’t think we could have survived 55 years unless we were. Furthermore we liked each other and loved each other,” Pat said. “Sometimes you don’t like what they are doing but you love them. I think the friendship to me is what is very important part of a relationship. And the humor.”

“The one big thing I always think is I don’t think either one of us has ever spent one second worried about which one of us was the better person, the better provider, the better anything,” Ray added. “She and I are absolutely equal. We always sit down and talk things out if there is a conversation needed. Sometimes we will force each other back into the conversation if we have to.”

Showing their love: “We just do what we do. … At any time, if we feel like something is necessary, we will get with the other person instead of running off. We make sure everything is cool,” Ray said.

“Be there. … He will always make me come back in and talk about it even though I don’t want to,” Pat said.

Being a good spouse: The way society defines a good spouse may have changed, but even in the times when a wife was “supposed” to be in charge of the home and the husband go out and be the provider, the Deweys said they didn’t prescribe to that societal norm.

“We are equal in money as well as all the other things we talked about. There is no mine and his, it is ours, no matter who brought it in or took,” Pat said.

“I think we lived that. I grew up in Jersey with my mom and her two sisters and I had three girl cousins and two guy cousins. Everything was mashed together and we never had an opportunity to assign roles,” Ray said.

The future: Pat wants to live to see their grandchildren graduate from college.

Ray said he had a rough time healthwise recently so his desires have changed. “Right at the moment to live to next year. It is not that harsh. But to make sure what I am doing for my family and my friends the kind of things that make them happy. That is it exactly. I just want to make my friends and family happy,” Ray said.

“Kind of like what we are taught sometimes is don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself when it gets here. Take care of today, do what you like to do and hopefully not make too many mistakes so you can get to tomorrow,”

Pat said.

Best advice for couples: “There isn’t a best one of us about anything. We are totally equal in each other’s eyes,” Ray said.

“That was that little thing I cut out of the Reader Digest’s umpti-billion years ago. It said, ‘Show me a happily married couple and I will show you two people who are not worried about who is the better half,’” Pat said.

“That is really it. I would say our whole life is that,” Ray went on. “I think we work very hard at making sure each other has the best possible day. I get up before she does in the morning. When she comes out my first thing is to make sure she is in a good mood. If that means telling a joke or saying something dirty, that is what it takes.”

“Or a cup of coffee. But I haven’t gotten you to that coffee in bed part. Maybe we can work on that,” Pat says, looking at her husband with a grin.

Josephine “Jo” and Obadiah “Obie” Goodman

Married since: June 8, 1963

Together since: 1960

First impressions: Despite living only 11 miles apart in Powhatan County their whole lives, Jo and Obie met for the first time in high school. Jo readily says she wasn’t into boys at the time – she was a freshman – and that included Obie, who was three years older. But he had a cousin that was her best friend “so he kind of grew on me.” It helped that he was “rather cute” and dressed nice. Obie had actually first spotted Jo a year earlier and asked about her, but never pursued her. But when she started paling around with his cousin, he started flirting with her.

“I wanted to find out whether she liked me or not. She had a bar of candy, a Baby Ruth, and I said ‘I know you got that candy for me.’ She said ‘yes, you can have it,’ and that was it. That is all it took,” Obie said.

The One: Obie graduated in 1960 and went to live and work in New York, but he and Jo carried on a long-distance relationship over the next three years. They communicated via phone and letters. He would fly or drive down for the weekend. Even with all the miles between them most of the time, they got closer and closer.

When he did come back to Powhatan, Obie would usually visit Jo on her family’s farm. Both their parents were strict, so unless he was visiting her at home, the only other approved activity was taking her to his parents’ house – chaperoned by her two sisters, of course.

Jo graduated from high school on a Wednesday in June 1963 and the couple was married that Saturday. The next day, Obie took her to live with him in New York City.

Parenthood vs. being a couple: The first of their five children were twins. Jo said once they got over the initial nervous breakdown the girls were good and entertained each other. Their next child – the third of five – wasn’t born for another two years. Being parents and giving their children the best life they could was important to the Goodmans, who both agreed, “when children are involved, you make a marriage work. You work harder at making everybody happy and giving them things that are necessary,” she said.

“It kept us together because you think about the kids as well as ourselves – getting up in the morning, making sure they are happy, taking them to the park, buying them gifts, things to play with and watching the kids grow up,” Obie added.