About Ed & Betty Coda

We were children of the sixties. Baby Boomers. Hippies. Growing up in a time of questioning and exploration of new ideas.

There were so many things we didn’t know and many things we learned the hard way. Living with the memory of how we had lived our lives and choices we had made created havoc at times to be as firm and clear about what we expected of our children.

We met and fell in love in our freshman year of college and decided to wait to get married until we finished school. The song that kept us going was “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” by the Beach Boys.

We believed that “No Two People Had Ever Been So in Love” and that no matter what life threw at us we could handle it.

Four years of wedded bliss passed before the six children started arriving, and we vowed to hang on to the enchantment of our relationship.

Jennifer (Jenny) is our first-born who fulfilled our dream of being parents and is the typical responsible, down-to-earth, super logical child. This is very common to her order in the family.

Anthony (Tony) is our first son who fulfilled our dream of having boys and is the fun-loving, witty sports enthusiast who keeps us from getting too serious.

Kelleen (Kellie), with the challenges she presented, most gave us the gift of being great parents because she forced us to hone our skills. Now she takes care of our family and others with her talent for healing.

Daniel (Danny), the thinker, was a breeze to raise. As a result we would often take him for granted and assume he would make good choices without our parental input. Now, very visible, he confronts us with knowledge and insight which keeps us on our toes and reflective about what’s next in our life.

Chryslyn (Chrysy), the cutest little lover always making everyone feel good about themselves, has a knack for getting huge tasks done and making them look easy.

Molly, the genuine peacemaker, pinpoints, focuses on and validates everyone’s strengths, encouraging us all to work together harmoniously.

We learned little by little that we could not handle the challenges of child raising even with a college education. We found out that we could not do it alone like we had previously thought. We built our primary support from marriage enrichments like Worldwide Marriage Encounter tm and Living in Love tm and parenting courses from Ho’ala School and Nurturing Program, as well as from our best friends and our children.

And now this book, which is the result of our experiences, is our gift to you…