When you see a lady carrying cartons of eggs to church on any given Sunday, accompanied by her husband, she is filling orders placed by church members buying the product of her 50 chickens near Marvel.
Derinda and Dwight Babcock celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary this week (Oct. 12th) with a quick dinner, cutting short the celebration due to Dwight’s work processing wild game, a somewhat seasonal job augmenting the hunting season. Two more elk are being brought in today.
Dwight was born in Durango but raised in Farmington, working for El Paso Natural Gas when, in 1976, he met a young intern just out of high school. A summer romance ensued and, on Derinda’s birthday, they were married that year. They moved to their 80-acre farm south of Marvel a few years later and started attending Grace Church back when Bob Ross was pastor and it was called Durango Baptist Temple. Dwight has been a butcher operating his shop known as Cannibal Canyon Meat Processing, a job his customers won’t let him retire from.
Derinda is an author and graphic designer, noted as a great leader of many other authors. She helps with book design and has written 13 books herself when not helping wrap meat or gathering eggs.
The Babcocks were married in Tabernacle Baptist Church in Farmington. When asked the secret of a long marriage, Derinda uses her creative literary talent to describe, “a marriage is like a bank account. You put in your love during those good times and build up a balance, taking out when you are mad or tired. If you don’t put in enough, you will be overdrawn.” She added, “marry someone of like faith. I see marriages fail when they don’t share a common belief.” Amen to that.