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| Coki Point Beach, St. Thomas, US,Virgin Islands |
My memory of Coki
Point Beach is entwined with that of my father, Gilbert Elliot Romeo and
sisters, Ianthe Romeo-Baynes, and Arlene Romeo-Ware. It is the place we visit
twice a week when we are vacationing at home (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands).--me
visiting from Switzerland and my younger sister, Arlene, visiting from
California.
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| Coki Point Beach, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands |
The time we spend
with our elderly father and older sister is precious. They are our role models,
our role models of health and role models of how to grow old gracefully and not
bitch about it.
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| Arlene Romeo-Ware and dad (Gilbert Elliot Romeo) |
The sun is never
out when we visit Coki Point Beach. We wake the sun up, rouse her from her sleep
with Ianthe’s sometimes purring, sometimes, puttering car engine.
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| Ianthe Romeo-Baynes swimming at Coki Point |
Like a mother, who
must rise, when her children are up, sun opens her eyes and splashes brilliant,
yellow rays against the grey morning sky. Sun drags away the silver shimmer
blanketing the sea.
Arlene and I stroll
with dad along the whitening shore from end of the beach to another, measure
our miles from point to point. Ianthe,
the most athletic of the three of us, measures her miles by swimming. She is
quite disciplined and gets up around 4:30 a.m. to walk in a nearby plaza with a
group of walking enthusiasts before picking us up and bringing us to the beach.
As we stroll and
power-walk along the beach, we welcome sun’s brightening gaze, listen to the
sea’s quiet invitation to frolic in its rolling waves. Our dad at 93 cannot
walk as fast as he used to but never gave up.
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| Ianthe Romeo-Baynes left walking with members of the early morning "posse." |
We are not alone.
There are others, who my dad refers to as his early morning posse. They are old and
young people who cherish the sun’s spreading warmth, the sea’s healing caress,
the soothing quiet of its voice.
Ianthe is on the
beach doing her stretches and we and dad’s “posse,” are in the sea. We bob up
and down, lull in the sun’s embrace, feel sun massage our frames, as we lose
ourselves in the sea’s lullaby.
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| Another beach (not Coki Point) in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands |
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| Iguanas-probably the second largest number of inhabitants after people in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands |
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