Family friend, my wife Lynn died suddenly in 2016, my only child, my son died 7 months later in 2017. I re-met Joshua (yes, female) at a grief counseling meeting. She was an old family friend we had lost touch with 10 years earlier.
She saved my life, as I was spiraling in a sea of grief.
We became engaged in January and proof that life does go on when you think there is nothing more to live for.

My departed wife and myself built a business from our garage in 1979. We created stained and etched glass windows, tables, fire screens and such for 20 years. We started doing restaurants and hotels in 1984 and our business morphed from a custom glass fabricator to a custom metal and glass fabricator. Eventually we dropped residential construction in 1995 and focused solely on restaurant and hospitality.
Lynn became a world renown glass sculptor and her work is virtually everywhere.
We moved out of the decor glass arena in 2005 to concentrate solely on sneeze guards.
Over all we have 25,000 decor pieces and put our work in over 105,000 restaurants and hotels in 50 states and over 50 countries. Including an aircraft carrier, nuclear submarine, off-shore oil platforms, the Pentagon, Epcot Center, and over 800 U.S. Military bases around the world.
Finally in 2017 we sent our work "home" and did the Victoria's Pizza shop in the old Dough-boy Restaurant in Bethel.
I found Lynn dead in bed in 2016 at age 64 after 38 years as business and marriage partners. But, her work lives on. And I as mentioned above, I have found a new life with a new partner and out of tragedy have been blessed. Though smaller and slowing down, we still ship 40 to 50 new restaurant locations a month, and our life's work continues.

NASCAR
Politics
History
Physics

Bethel 1956 through 1973
Danbury 1974 - 1978
Los Angeles Area 1978 to present

Being in the pop culture arena Los Angeles can be and the nature of our business and personal affiliations we have met scores of "famous" people from Mel Gibson to Wayne Gretsky to Ben Stiller to Pamela Anderson and so on. Had the pleasure to deny OJ Simpson a request to join our threesome for golf after his first trial. Most "famous" people are fairly uninteresting

The single most interesting person and one I would call a Great American was Dr. Phillip Binzel. I admired the man through his books and works and had the great honor to meet and converse with him in Cincinnati prior to his death.

Spent two summers backpacking in Europe, went to just about every non Eastern block country in 1975 and 1976, Most memorable was camping in olive groves at the beach in Corfu, Brugges Belgium, Madrid, hiking the Matterhorn in Zermatt Switzerland

Kauai, Barbados

Spent 15 years traveling 2.7 million air miles in this country for business. All in all there is nothing quite as diverse and extraordinary as America and the people in it