March12, 2026 The world has lost another good man this evening. The Man - My Man passed away around 10:30 tonight. He was 78 years old and suffered from severe COPD. It is a wonder he managed to stay alive these past nine and a half years that we were together. Most of my blogs have been about The Man so you know he was a constant source of "entertainment" for me. I often wanted to kill him but all in all it was a wonderful decade.
We met at a birthday party for one of my Florida friends. That was in January of 2017. The Man happened to be visiting an old Army buddy of his who lived in Florida and knew the birthday boy. Being the only 2 people at the party without a spouse we started to chat and that was that. My husband had just been dead a year and The Man's wife had died 3 years past. God did some good planning that day because The Man and I were meant to be together for so so many reasons.
The Man had never been on a cruise. I took him on our little Margaritaville cruise that sails from West Palm Beach to the Bahamas where it docks for one night and then sails back. It's a great way to see if you enjoy cruising. I will never forget The Man's reaction when we walked into our room on the ship. He stood there looking around and said, "It's not all grey." The only ship he had ever been on was a Navy cruiser when he went to Vietnam back in the 60's. He loved the cruise so over the years we sailed to Cuba and then a second cruise to some of the beautiful islands in the Caribbean. Wonderful memories.
And then there was Alaska ! The Man's son lives in Alaska so every summer dad would drive up to see his son and go moose hunting. ( Moose meat is delicious !). Now that we were a couple I spent several summers making the 7 day drive from Michigan to Alaska and back. We went Halibut fishing 6 hours off the coast of Valdez, AK. We panned for gold, spent a weekend at a hotel in Chena Hot Springs where we soaked in almost boiling hot water that came up from underground springs. We celebrated July 4th Alaska style. No fireworks because it never gets dark in July so instead you have a big beer party in the back yard and blow up plastic garbage bags filled with propane. It is much more fun and a lot louder than traditional fireworks. So many good times in Alaska and such amazing scenery on the drive through Canada to get there. Between The Man who spent his last 5 years in the Army at a base in Fairbanks and his son we saw places that no tourist has ever been.
Winters in Florida were always special because The Man could spend all winter outside on the lanai while the farm in Michigan was covered in snow. I would tease The Man that the only reason he was with me was because I had a condo in Florida and I was with him because of his farm in the UP. When I met The Man I had never heard of The UP, Upper Peninsula, of Michigan. I had never seen Lake Superior and its incredible beauty nor had I swum in Lake Michigan which happens to be freezing in the middle of July. I educated The Man in Florida sights, (Of which Donald Trump's Mara Largo was his favorite spot to drive past), and he showed me the heart of the UP. Talk about different worlds !!!
And now all that is memories. This winter I spent 4 months at the farm enjoying SNOW !!! (Everyone up there blames the huge amount of snow that they got on my desire to see snow. I am not invited back in the winter ever again.). The time I got to spend with The Man this winter was very special. I think we both knew this was going to be our last time together. His breathing had gotten so much worse, he was often struggling to breathe and he was telling me he was tired and was ready to give up. We took it day by day, brought in Hospice, had helpers coming in 7 days a week but it wasn't enough. The Man had talked about going into an assisted living in town but was never really all in on that plan. The someone suggested the Veterans Community Care residence that is part of the VA hospital about an hour away from the farm. That appealed to The Man and within 3 days he was moved in and happy to be there. It was a big room, laundry service, 3 meals a day delivered to his room, ice cream any time he wanted it and lots and lots of nurses and aids who checked on him all the time. He was in Heaven. And I was able to be there for the whole week before I came back to Florida. I didn't have to worry about him falling at home or having trouble with his oxygen when no one was there to help.
The day I left him I just knew I would not see him again. Just a feeling that we both had. We sat on his bed and talked for a while about what a wonderful time we had being together. We both agreed that God put us together for a reason. We decided God wanted me to learn patience and he wanted The Man to stop worrying about everything. We both got an A+ so it was time to graduate to the next step in our lives.
Dwayne . . . AKA The Man . . . took his last step tonight. He will be missed. I know he is still with me and I spent a while alone tonight talking to him after he was gone. We will see if he sends me a message to let me know he is OK. (Husband sent 2 messages after he passed and you can not tell me otherwise).
Maybe I'll have more time to write now but don't bet on it. Even without the nightly hour long phone calls I do manage to never have enough time to do everything I want to do. But I promise to try to do better with my blogs. I'm sure I can manage to get into plenty of trouble on my own.
Say a prayer for Dwayne . . . He was a very special guy. I was blessed to have had him in my life.
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