By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

It came as a surprise to their families, their friends — and even to them. But Bill Becker and Paula Maybell are getting married a week from today. Their courtship has been rather brief — less than six months — but the two have been friends for 80 years. That's right, 80, since their childhood days in a small town in Kansas.

"It's nice," says Paula. "When you get to our age, when you get to be 83, to have someone you can talk to and share old stories."

Says Bill, "Every once in a while, we think of people we haven't talked about yet."

The two have always been friends. Bill remembers being one of many neighborhood kids who would wind up at Paula's mother's dinner table. Paula remembers Bill walking past her father's service station in the afternoons. They went to school together at Strong City High, though Paula skipped a grade. "She was kind of a smart-aleck," says Bill. "And I was just a snot-nosed kid. She called me that the other night. She said she never thought she'd be marrying the snot-nosed kid who lived a block and a half from her."

Bill lived much of his adult life in Colorado Springs. He owned an International Harvester dealership and served in the Colorado Legislature.

Paula Maybell and Bill Becker, both in their 80s, plan to marry soon. They knew each other in grade school in Kansas, but got reacquainted and decided life is too short to spend it apart. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Paula has lived in Hawai'i for 40 years. Her late husband, Chuck Maybell, was director of the Hawai'i office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

After Bill's wife of 59 years passed away last year, he re-evaluated his life. "I was really getting cabin fever," he says. "So I asked myself do I stay in this old folks home and die on the vine or do I do something else?"

He thought of taking a cruise and he thought of asking his old friend Paula if she'd like to be his traveling companion (separate rooms, they both emphasize).

They had gotten together many times over the years, mostly at Strong City High School reunions, which are held every two years back home. They'd stay in the same hotel (separate rooms, they both emphasize) but spend all their time together. "We always got along real well. That was all. Good friends," says Paula. "A beautiful friendship."

Before they left on their cruise of the Western Caribbean, Paula invited Bill to visit her here in Hawai'i. He swears when he got off the plane, their whole relationship changed in an instant. All of a sudden, they were more than friends.

"She met me at the airport and she gave me a lei and a hug and a kiss," Bill says.

"That's what you're supposed to do!" Paula laughs.

"But right there, something had changed," Bill says. He struggles to find the right words, but ends up with tears welling up in his eyes.

"You get too emotional," Paula teases, giving him a small swat on the leg.

"This is something to get emotional over," he replies, dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief.

After his first visit, Bill installed an 800-phone line between Paula's house in Kailua and his house in Colorado Springs. Once Bill and Paula decided to make a go of it, he packed everything he could fit into two suitcases and moved to her Kailua home. There are still some things he can't get used to, like the street names and various local customs: "I have a hell of a time taking my shoes off in the house," he complains. And he doesn't call his fiancee 'Paula.' "I call her Sissy," he says. "That's her Strong City, Kansas, name."

Next came the job of telling their families of their intentions. Paula said she told her son over the phone and he couldn't stop laughing. He's coming from Portland for the ceremony.

Bill, who has four sons, was more formal in his approach: "I went to the four boys — and I still make the rules in the Becker family — but I went to the boys and I said 'Fellas, I'm giving some thought to getting married. What would you think?' And they said 'Dad, if it suits you, it would tickle the hell out of us.' So I have their blessing. I said I'm glad you all agree because I was going to do it anyway."

Perhaps the bigger test for Bill was to get approval from Paula's many friends. "I wasn't here more than 15 minutes before the neighbor across the street came to check me out. He wanted to see what I was all about!"

Last weekend, in a gesture of unanimous support, Paula's friends threw a huge party for them in celebration of their happy news. "They had to run out several times to get more vodka and pupus," says Paula.

Even though they're friends from the good-old-days, their relationship is quite modern. She's not taking his last name, preferring instead to hyphenate Maybell-Becker. They also have signed a pre-nuptial agreement. "It's only fair to make sure what she has goes to her people and what I have goes to my sons," says Bill. And Paula has made her rules very clear: "I don't cook and I golf at least twice a week."

"She told me in one conversation, 'Bill Becker, I don't need you, but I want you.' "

The wedding will be at Saint Mark's church next Sunday morning, with a reception in the afternoon at the Mid Pacific country club.

"Why wait, you know?" says Bill. "How much time do 83-year-olds have?"

Bill had a wedding ring made for Paula from a blue sapphire — blue like the ocean they admired together on their cruise.

They plan to go back to their Strong City High School reunion next month, and they'll stay in the same hotel, but this time, they point out, they'll only need one room.

"All those years, I never kissed her," says Bill. "What a waste of time that was. I can't say I haven't kissed her now!"

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.