TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY

It has now been 10 years since my partner Dennis Healy passed away, on Christmas Eve 2010. We had been together 30+ years and he died of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). I always post on Facebook as a remembrance but now that I'm writing a blog again, I figured I'd also write about it now.

Some of my fondest memories are the 10 trips we took to Hawaii; eight to Oahu and two to Kauai. The last trip we took was in May 2010, while he could still get around, albeit with a cane. We were able to afford the trip thanks to the founder of the company I worked for, as I was the manager of the Corporate AMEX account, and I convinced him to allow me to use reward points to pay for our airfare and hotel. He agreed immediately, and I still am very grateful that he did that for us. There used to be a gay bread & breakfast that we stayed at; that last time we were told that they were going to be converting the 16 rooms to condominiums, so it was appropriate that we were able to stay there one last time before they did so. It was less than two blocks to Waikiki Beach, and while it took longer to get to where we liked to set up, it was worth it. Dennis could walk okay, but slowly. He needed to stop every little while to catch his breath and he used to say, "bench coming up" to indicate that he needed to rest for a bit.

September of that year was our 30th anniversary, so we considered this trip an early way to celebrate that milestone. We had dinner at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, know as "the Pink Palace" as the entire hotel is painted pink stucco. When we arrived, the hostess proclaimed, "30 years together, huh? That's fantastic." As she led us through the restaurant, she looked over her shoulder and stated, "we've set up one of our tented cabana tables outside for you. We usually charge $150, but that is being waived in honor of your anniversary." We were very thankful and surprised at the same time. It was a wonderful way to end the vacation.

No photo description available.

Later that year, we were able to attend a Healy family reunion the first few days in September, which included our anniversary date of September 1st. Those five days were very special, as Dennis got to see all his siblings for the first time since 1998, as well as all the other relatives that lived in the Detroit metro area. The photo below was taken that weekend.


That's it for now. Stay safe and healthy.




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