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New campuses coming soon in St. John and Elmhurst! |
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Double the love: Two sets of Bultemas Celebrate 59 Years of Wedded Bliss |
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South Holland, Ill. (February 2007) – One Sunday in 1947, Larry Bultema was visiting Second Roseland Christian Reformed Church with a friend of his who was home from the service. Bultema was a member of Munster (Indiana) CRC, but that particular Sunday he felt the need to “see some new people,” particularly female people. Seeing 17-year-old Lorraine Santeford enter the sanctuary that day with her twin sister Laverne was like an answer to prayer.
“She was so beautiful,” Larry smiles, “I knew right then that I wouldn’t want to date anyone else ever again.” Larry and his friend had double-dated before, and they used to good-naturedly rib each other about who had the best-looking girl. “But when Lorraine and her sister walked in—” says Larry, “no arguing. They were identical!” Larry and his friend and the Santeford sisters went out on one date before the friend returned to the service. When Larry called Lorraine for a second date, she turned him down. “I won’t go without my sister,” she said. “Hold on,” said Larry. “I have an idea.” He talked to his younger brother Harold, who agreed to serve as Lorraine’s sister’s date. The brothers and the twin sisters dated for a year and a half. “We always double-dated,” says Larry. “We had to. We only had one car!” Finally they set February 25, 1949, as the day they would be married in a dual wedding ceremony. When they stopped at city hall to get their marriage licenses, Larry and Lorraine stepped up to the counter first. The clerk brusquely took their names, completed the forms, and brushed them aside. Then Harold and Laverne stepped up to the counter and gave their names. The clerk did a double take. “I just did you!” he said to Laverne. “No, you just did my twin sister,” Lavern explained. “Wait a minute,” said the clerk, trying to sort it out. “You’re twin sisters? And you’re marrying brothers?” “That’s right,” the group replied. The clerk set the “Closed” sign in front of his window, picked up his phone, and placed a call. “Chicago Tribune?” he said. “Have I got a story for you!” As a result of the media exposure from the Tribune and others, on the day of the wedding the church was filled. “It was wall-to-wall people—and we didn’t know most of them!” remembers Lorraine. Having a double marriage ceremony was a rare enough event in 1949; having the couples be brothers and twin sisters made it an irresistible attraction. “All the papers were there, and their photographers—it was horrible!” laughs Lorraine. Larry still owns scrapbooks of all the articles and photographs that marked their remarkable day. Ten years later the Bultemas received a follow-up call from the Chicago Tribune. “They sent a reporter and a photographer out to the house and did a story on our tenth anniversary,” says Larry. That article went into the scrapbook too. This February 25 marks the Bultemas’ 59th anniversary. Both couples are still married and still ardently in love. “We can testify to wedded bliss for all these years,” Larry smiles at his bride. Harold and Laverne have moved to Tennessee, but Larry and Lorraine are still local, living in an apartment in South Holland’s Holland Home. “We know a lot of people here, and it’s a good place to be,” says Larry. They don’t have big plans for this year’s anniversary, and they are cautious about looking too far ahead to their 60th anniversary next year. “We don’t know if we’ll still be around then,” says Larry. “We’re not as healthy as we used to be. But if we’re both around, I’m sure we’ll be together.” Holland Home Christian Retirement Community is located at 16300 Louis Avenue in South Holland, Illinois. Call 708-596-3050 for more information. 
Lorraine and Larry Bultema pose in their Holland Home apartment with a photo from their double wedding ceremony 59 years ago. Larry and his brother Harold married twin sisters Lorraine and Laverne on February 25, 1949.
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About Emerald Meadows Emerald Meadows is an assisted living community founded and supported by local churches committed to providing Christ-like care and service to seniors. For more information about Emerald Meadows, please visit www.resthaven.com. |
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