NEWS
Joe and Mary Weston's family built a gazebo to mark their 70th wedding anniversary
VALPARAISO — What is the anniversary gift to celebrate 70 years of marriage? For longtime Valparaiso residents Joe and Mary Weston, it's a gazebo with swings at the city's Florida Park overlooking Boggy Bayou.
Florida Park has had a special place in the lives of the Westons since the couple built a house near the small waterfront park in the late 1960s. The couple, now both retired civil servants from Eglin Air Force Base, have used the park on Grandview Avenue over the years with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"Every Fourth of July this is where we'd come to celebrate," said the couple's oldest daughter, Brenda Barbee. "All my kids learned to flounder in that bay. All my kids learned how to ski in that bayou."
Usually behind a small wooden boat with an outboard motor the Joe Weston would launch at the park.
So, when it came time to celebrate Joe and Mary's 70th wedding anniversary, one of Barbee's sons, Dr. Jacob Barbee, came up with the idea of building a gazebo in the park for the couple.
"He said he really wanted to do something special for their 70th anniversary," which they celebrated July 15 with about 50 family members.
"We gave them a card with a picture of the plans and told them what we were going to do," Barbee said. "They both cried."
Barbee's other son, Destin fishing boat captain Judah Barbee, got the guidelines from Valparaiso's parks department and, along with some other family members, set to building the gazebo.
Joe Weston, who has built three homes himself, took a keen interest in the construction.
"We took him down every day in the golf cart so he could watch the progress," Barbee said. "And give his two cents' worth."
They finished in early September, just as Hurricane Irma was moving over the southeastern United States. The gazebo has a plaque embedded in the concrete foundation, and they plan to add a trellis to the top to provide some shade.
But for now, it seems to be just right.
"I think it's wonderful," Mary Weston said as she sat on one of the swings Wednesday. "We've been down here almost every day since they finished and have seen the neighbors enjoying it as well.
"They couldn't have done anything that would have pleased us more."