Alison Miller enjoyed a passionate24-year marriage to Chuck Dearing. When he was suddenly taken from her by cancer last spring, her world came to an abrupt end. Honoring his last wishes, she has embarked on a journey to celebrate him and the love they shared.

In 2009, the couple decided to pack it all in and live out the rest of their lives on an adventure. They sold their New Jersey Home and all of their possessions to embark on the journey of a lifetime. They left the “rat race” behind and spent four years touring the country, staying only at inexpensive motels and military bases. Chuck’s status as a vet earned them that privilege. They nicknamed themselves as the “Happily Homeless.”
While on a stop in southern California on March 27, 2013, the couple learned that Chuck’s cancer, which he had been treated for back 2011, had returned. Chuck died from it just four weeks later.

Alison told her “Handsome Husband” before he died that she would honor his life by continuing their travels. He asked her to revisit some of the spots they had loved most and to scatter his ashes there. He also asked her not to wear the official mourning color of black. “It isn’t your color,” he’d said. Instead he asked her to wear pink. She agreed and promised to paint her car pink so he could always find her on the road. He promised he’d be watching for her.

She and two of her children drove to Arizona where she got a new car and had it painted pink. She drove it across country to New Jersey for Chuck’s memorial service. Along the way, the car did what Alison had hoped. It drew people to her, people who talked to her and kept her from feeling isolated.

She couldn’t face traveling the way they had in the past, it was too painful a reminder of his loss. Instead, she bought a camper to tow behind her car and had it painted a matching shade of pink. It had been Chuck’s dream to travel in an RV but Alison had vetoed the idea. Now she felt she owed it to him and she set out on her journey, “The Pink Magic Odyssey of scattering her “Handsome Husband’s” cremains in our favorite spots around the country.”

She set out on December 1, accompanied for the first leg of the trip by her fireman son, Nick. In Key West, her first stop, she and Nick carried out a small ritual on a secluded stretch of beach. Each of the couple’s children will be accompanying her on different parts of the trip.

As the 1-year anniversary of Chuck’s death loomed, Alison continued to blog on “Happily Homeless” about her new existence without the man she loved. A touching celebration will take place on an Arizona mountain top on April 21, the anniversary of Chuck’s passing.

 

Beverly Smith, 56, wanted to give her husband one final adventure. She placed some of his ashes in a bottle and tossed it off the Florida Coast, hoping to give her travel-loving husband one last journey.

Gordon Scott Smith of Louisville, Tenn., had suffered a brain hemorrhage three weeks earlier which took his life unexpectedly. Beverly wanted to honor his travel-loving ways and devised a plan. Along with the ashes, she included two dollars and note explaining her mission and asking whoever found the bottle to use the money to call her and let her know where he wound up.

Gordon’s journey began Big Pine Key, Fla. Recently, Judi Glunz Sydney found the bottle washed up on the beach at the hotel she co owns in Key Colony Beach, Fla. Along with the note from Beverly was a note from a man named Ross.

Ross was the first person to find the Smith bottle in Islamorada, Fla, about 50 miles from its launch point. He called Beverly and informed her of Gordon’s location. She was so happy to hear from him, that Ross decided to add a note of his own and let Gordon continue his journey, asking the next finder to call him as well. That’s where Judi comes in.

Judi added her own note and another dollar for the next caller. She transferred the contents, including all the notes, into a rum bottle. On her Facebook wall, she posted that the hotel would be sponsoring a memorial service during which Gordon’s bottle would be returned to the sea so he could continue his final voyage. We wonder where he will turn up next.