Friday, November 26, 1999

13 (children) turned out lucky

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BY JOHN JOHNSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        Dinner was meat and potatoes every day at 5:30. Not one minute past. Al Beuke insisted on it.

        And everyone in the Beuke home had to be there, on time. Everyone. Ann Beuke insisted on it.

Everyone has a story worth telling. At least, that's the theory. To test it, Tempo is throwing darts at the phone book. When a dart hits a name, a reporter dials the phone number and asks if someone in the home will be interviewed. Stories appear on Fridays.

        Maybe this is the secret to successfully raising 13 children, as Al and Ann Beuke (pronounced BOY-key) did.

        Or maybe the spic-and-span house had something to do with it. “Neat as a pin,” Al says. “We were even known to have the prettiest yard in the neighborhood.”

        He and his wife are sitting at their dining room table, the one that once belonged to Al's mother, the one on which countless family meals have been served.

        The Beukes reside in Owensville now, on 25 acres. When their kids were growing up the family lived in Fairfax, and later Day Heights.

Seven boys, six girls
        Al is 86, a serious-looking fellow with neatly combed gray hair. Ann is 82, with little furrows in her face that deepen when she smiles, which is often. They've been married 62 years.

        They didn't necessarily figure on having a large family. “It just happened that way,” Al says.

        Jim arrived first, in 1938. Then Elaine, Albert, Barbara, Mary, David, Terry, Michael, Chuck, Julie, Denise, Michelle and Tim, who was born in 1961.

        Thirteen children. Seven boys. Six girls.

        “I would say if I thought about it to begin with, I wouldn't think I was capable,” Ann says. “It would be such a tremendous job, I wouldn't know if I would undertake that.”

        But she did. They both did.

        “Dad built bunk beds for us, three-high,” says Michelle Valz, the second youngest. “He built all our stuff, our toys, our skateboards, our swing set, our sleds.”

        When Al wasn't building something, he was working 22 years for American Can Co. Then he bought a carryout in Milford, and ran that for 20 years.

Always room for more
        Aside from a short stint working for Swallen's founder Pat Swallen, Ann stayed home.

        “I don't ever remember Mom sitting down,” Michelle says.

        Ann washed floors. She did laundry. She cooked, not only for her family, but for her children's friends and whoever might stop by.

        “There was always room at the dining room table for one more,” Ann says.

        Somehow, she found time for the little things, like changing the curtains when a new season arrived. And re-covering furniture. And ironing napkins and pillow slips.

        “I expected a heck of a lot from the Lord,” Ann says.

        “Everything I did had to be just right. I couldn't afford to do it twice. Therefore, I expected the Lord to let me know, do I do this or that?

        “It just worked out. Sometimes the end of the day would come, and I'd done so many things that I thought, "How many angels did it take to help?' ”

        As the children grew, they were expected to help out, too. Because of the wide age range, 10 was the most Beuke kids living at home at any one time.

        They all knew the rules. The phone, for instance. “We were only allowed on it for two minutes,” Michelle says. “God forbid you should be on for three.

        “Nothing was iffy. Everything was cut and dry.”

        Ann also made it plain what was most important to her family.

        “No. 1 was love. If you love one another, you care for each other. I always told my sons, be sure you take care of your sisters. And they did.”

        Indeed, Terry was in high school, and a boy wouldn't let her alone. Michael heard about it, and broke the boy's jaw. It was one of the few times one of the Beuke kids got in trouble.

        Michael died three years ago of cancer. All the other siblings live in Greater Cincinnati, most of them on the east side. Some went to college. Most are married with families. A few have their own businesses. All are gainfully employed. They have produced 26 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren for Al and Ann.

        “There is a secret to raising a family,” Al finally decides, still sitting at the dining room table. You don't have to be a genius to figure it out, he says.

        You learn as you go. First one child. Then two. All the way up to 13. Hard work? You bet.

        “We did try hard,” he says, “and we succeeded.”

       

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