When my late husband, Rich, learned that I’d never been to the Florida Keys he suggested that we honeymoon there. We were married in New Jersey in late September and I made my first visit to this beautiful place in early October. We flew into Fort Lauderdale, rented a car and glided down Route US One arriving for a stay at Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key.
Most people might think that the Keys are just another Florida resort among so many in the Sunshine State filled with wide white beaches and rows of towering condos, but they’d be wrong. The Keys are a series of islands connected by bridges spanning Key Largo to Key West. In between are communities such as the bustling municipality of Marathon and the more quiet rural Big Pine Key with their beloved herds of tiny Key Deer that always seem to pop out of the woods as you drive by. There’s also the famous No Name Pub on No Name Key with its walls papered with dollar bills. I swear I spotted Simon Cowell sitting in a corner booth one busy night perhaps taking a break from American Idol taping.
I fell in love with the Keys like Rich had hoped and from that visit until 1996 until 2021, the year he would pass, we spent a lot of time in the keys renting homes in Islamorada, Lower Matecumbe, Big Pine Island and Key Colony Beach making so many special memories with fun visits from family and friends.
The weather is almost nearly perfect, the food, drink amazing and sunsets spectacular. For dog-lovers there is the added bonus that most establishments here are dog friendly, welcoming them (even 3) with smiles and admiration. We are also thankful that our landlord is a dog-loving rescuer that allows our pack to stay here.
Rich and I made our final trip to Key Largo in January 2021. We’d taken our beloved Havanese-mix Teddy with us. At the time Teddy was a Tripod having lost a leg in an effort to cure him of a Mast Cell Tumor. Teddy would pass just weeks later and Rich 8 months after that.
In September of this year I made plans to return to the Keys with my dog, Quint after locating the young man who used to rent us a Key Colony Beach home. But those plans changed when I’d decided to purchase my log home in Central Florida and the closing would coincide with the dates I’d chosen to rent.
With the log home purchase, and my mother now in Assisted Living in Upstate New York, life changed quickly. After spending time working on the new home, I decided to rent my home in Georgia and make rural Florida my base for a while, sharing my life and space with a new person.
Talk about warp-speed change. I think many people must’ve thought I’d lost my mind, but I saw an opportunity to take some time away in a new community where I did not know a soul to reset so to speak. With the passing of my Dad a year ago and my mom in February, combined with the process of renting my home and moving I thought the time had come to just get away and what better place than The Keys.
I was fully aware that this would be the first time I’d be here without Rich; a locale filled not just with memories of him, but those of so many late family members that’d spent time with me here for over 25 years.
David, had never been to The Keys, and I realized I was not just sharing a destination with him, but making a new start – celebrating the past while seeing this place with new eyes. It wasn’t always easy, and it’s something David and I talked about (that is huge), but the week was restful and relaxing, even with a new puppy who seems to like life on the road with his pack.
I look forward to our return north today, ready to make new plans and to appreciate how far Ive come on this Widowed Journey.
