“Life is a journey, 
not a destination.” 
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In August 1975, as I was preparing to leave the Bahamas and return home after teaching for a year at St. Augustine’s College in Nassau, one of the goodbyes to my Bahamian friends included this brief, but unforgettable verbal exchange:

“I’m hoping to come back to Nassau some day,” I told him.

“Of course you are,” my friend responded. “You can shake the sand from your shoes, but it will always be in your soul.”

I’m sure I didn’t understand the depth of those words until many years later, but they have certainly proven to be true. I returned to Nassau for brief visits in 1979, 1981, 1985, and most recently in 2006. Each visit was accompanied by a feeling of returning home. There was something about my Bahamian experience in the mid-‘70s, the people I’d met and embracing island life, that definitely got into my soul. Here it is now, March 2023, and that same sense of homecoming has enveloped me.

One of the highlights of all my previous trips to Nassau has been reconnecting with former students and colleagues from St. Augustine’s College. Connecting with them, and visiting with them through the years, has been a true gift. 

When I returned to California in 1975, I started receiving handwritten note cards on exquisite stationery from Kim, one of my 10th grade students at SAC. She had impeccable penmanship. Of course, I responded to her letters. We were two friends keeping tabs on each other for almost fifty years, and nothing more. I’ve gotten together with Kim each time I’ve visited Nassau. Over time, our handwritten notes and letters were replaced with emails, then Facebook messages. Kim married Simon and I married Kathy. We’ve been to their home in Nassau, and they’ve been to our home in San José. In 1981, I was honored to have the opportunity to take Kim out to dinner to the Wharf Restaurant in downtown Nassau on her 21st birthday. That was several years before she and I met our respective spouses. Even though that was a somewhat formal dinner, it wasn’t a date. It was just two friends celebrating a very special occasion.

I arrived in Nassau this morning. The reason for this unexpected, hastily-planned visit is markedly different than any previous excursions to the Bahamas. I’m here to say goodbye to Kim. For several years, she has been battling cancer. Despite the diagnosis and treatment, Kim has maintained courageous hope and a positive spirit. Last week, however, in a Facebook message, Kim informed me that her doctor told her that things have gotten worse, and that it was time for her to put her affairs in order. When I shared this devastating news with Kathy, she immediately suggested that I return to Nassau to visit Kim. So here I am… feeling grateful for the opportunity to say goodbye and to thank Kim for being such a good friend for so many years.

I’ve only been here for a few hours, but checking-in to the hotel, I met several people with whom I have mutual friends. It really has been a homecoming.