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Vieques- February 2006
Living and Working in Vieques..
Weve always known it. In a nano-second, the world is transformed. Dependability predictability, consistency the very things one values in life, especially as one grows older, become the Disappeared.
Even in Vieques such things happen. My partner, my dear friend, has lung cancer. He is diagnosed, takes tests in San Juan, then is hustled out of Vieques as if he were going to a witness protection program. He was here, and then he wasnt. Off to Houston for treatment, before I, or anyone else, can say a proper good-bye.
On the other hand, what is a proper good-bye? For all of the occasions we have celebrated over the years, the birthdays, the New Years Eves, the Halloweens, the dinner parties we always knew what to do; what to wear, what to prepare. For this occasion, there is no preparation.
Of course we are optimistic, but that is not the point, not right now. Right now, we just want him home. In his office, doing what he does best. In an odd way, he is the only person I know who has made a success of being all things to all people. Perhaps that is because he has so little ego, not a hint of narcissism ever informs his daily life. His absence from the island is palpable. He is not here, he is somewhere else. We want him home.
My old joke was that he is a man who is more than the sum of his parts. Old joke, because I used it so often over the years to describe him to new clients, to friends to anyone who would listen. More than the sum of his parts. After one has described him as intelligent, elegant, humorous, smart, honest; after one has said all the complimentary things possible he is still more.
Sounds like love, doesnt it? And so it is. I am madly in love with my partner. I am not alone in this. Everyone who knows him is in love with him. He is the one person about whom there is never anything bad to say.
His partner is a rock. Throughout this, and throughout all the other crisis they have endured, my partners partner is the other, equal strand that has created an inseparable twine that will withstand any strong wind.
So living and working in Vieques is about this too. For sure, the sun doesnt shine, there is a chill in the air, clouds hover all this, until my partner comes home.
Have a wonderful Spring,
Sheila
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Webmaster's Note * Sheila has many hats and is Co-owner of Crow's Nest Realty with Eli Belendez.
Sheila can be reached for a brochure through her web page at http://www.crowsnestrealty.com