William & Shirley Wilks
- Married since 1956
My husband and I first met when my parents moved and rented from Bill’s mother. Our family didn’t have a television so we would often go over to Bill’s to watch TV.
Bill had a cottage on Lauderdale Lake in Whitewater, Wisconsin. and ended up hiring my dad to build cabinets. At first, I never really noticed Bill in that way. But one morning, my dad came into my room and said “young lady I’d appreciate it if you’d get up and I’ll take you out somewhere. I asked, “Where are we going daddy?” And he didn’t really say, but I obeyed, and we ended up going to Bill’s cottage where he told the whole history of the lake as he showed us around. After I got back home something snapped, and I noticed him more.
Bill’s mother owned greenhouses in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and I started going over to visit him more and more at the greenhouses where he worked. One day he asked me if my friend Barb was busy next Saturday night. I suddenly felt very weird and wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of them going out, by this time I knew I liked him. Luckily for me, he ended up wanting to double date; said Barb could go with his friend Wally and I would be his date. I was so relieved and excited! I quickly asked Barb to double date with me and Bill with Wally.
Our first date we went out for pizza. He always took such good care of me, still does! We didn’t have a car, so He offered to drive me to the bus stop every day, as I worked in downtown Milwaukee. We started dating in February, I got a ring in May, and we were married in September! We both had faith in Jesus and to this day believe the Lord brought and kept us together all these years.
He asked my parents for their blessing, and then one Saturday night he took me to a movie in Milwaukee at the Pig and Whistle Drive-In. We saw the movie -“Oklahoma”, later Bill asked me to marry him! I had no idea and was surprised & delighted. So happy and thrilled when I got back home late in the night, I rushed in to tell my mom, I didn’t even stop to turn the light on! We’ve been married for 65+ years, 66 in Sept 2022.
We have 2 children, 8 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren! We had a love of Square Dancing which we did until we couldn’t anymore- close to 25 years. Also, we loved motor homing when retired, we traveled all over, Arizona, California, Florida, Branson Missouri, etc. As a family, we loved boating and water skiing.
God has blessed us with a wonderful life, and we are so grateful to Him, and for Him. We were never rich, but we always had enough to eat and good jobs to Tithe, to save for things and for our future, and to provide for our present needs. We believe the Lord brought us together and that He directed my dad to suggest Bill, He opened my heart to Bill, and gave Bill a sense that I was going to be the woman who would be His wife!
Marriage Advice: We made a commitment to each other that we would never go out without the other person with friends. Meaning if we didn’t go out as couples, we would never go out by ourselves with a friend of the opposite sex! Unless there was an emergency, we were able to keep that commitment all these years! My husband plainly said it — “The Lord Kept us Clean!” — pure and true to each other, with stronger ties of Love! We thank the Lord for each other, good health overall, our family, and forgiveness of sin/ Eternal Life through Faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
