ERIE -- The Waylands still remember their penny-pinching days, the time when they ate spaghetti more than one night a week and test drove cars for fun on weekends.

"But even our roughest times weren't really rough. Even in our poorest days, we were rich," Bob Wayland, 64, said.

His wife, DiAnn Wayland, 61, nodded.

"We had each other and a roof over our head," she said.

Yet, poverty wears many garments, and volunteering at the food bank sponsored every other Saturday at their church -- Bible Baptist Church of Erie -- reminds them of their own seasons of need and of gratitude.

For instance, Bob recalled how his neglectful parents forced social services to place him at age 6 or 7 at Byers Home for Boys in Denver.

"I see these young kids coming in (to the food bank) with their parents, and I know they don't understand why mom and dad can't provide like other moms and dads," he said. "... Life keeps going even when a job stops."

Bob enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1966, the year before the orphanage that cared well for him closed.

He even got a strong enough sense of family there to hope for his own family someday.

That chance came when he met DiAnn Richards at a softball game in Lakewood while on leave from Vietnam to undergo multiple surgeries at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in nearby Aurora.

The couple married on June 5, 1969, at Alameda Hills Baptist Church in Lakewood, two days after she graduated from Lakewood High School.


Like many newlyweds, they looked forward to having children.

Instead, they faced the stillbirth of triplets in 1969 and the death of a daughter born prematurely in 1971.

Then, on April 26, 1976, they welcomed daughter Shanda, their first of three healthy babies.

Since then, the Waylands have weathered garden-variety ups and downs.

But they appreciate how hard times can dismantle pride and in its place build faith.

"Every person goes through rough spots. That's part of growing," DiAnn said.

Still, from the other side of the table she notices the body language of some going through the food bank line and knows afresh how growth often comes with pains.

"You can read it. Some come in very quiet, very subdued, head down," DiAnn said. "But we don't judge. We never ask why they need the food. The only question is 'How many are in your family?' so that we know what size box to pack."
