By Kathy Bond

2009. Before our older daughter, Angie, died on April 27th, she expressed two regrets: she wouldn’t live to see her two children grow up, and she hadn’t traveled much. On our mid-October, two-week voyage from Fort Lauderdale, through the Panama Canal to San Diego, I found myself viewing the trip through her eyes.

She would’ve donned sandals, tee shirt, and shorts in a minute, or swam in the dolphin-decorated pool on the Lido Deck, or the salt water one on Deck Ten. Monica and the band would’ve captured her attention as we left port.

I can see her at English High Tea, in the wood and brass Rotterdam Dining Room, greeted at 3 p.m. by white-gloved servers, who escort her to her seat, place a napkin on her lap before proffering: scones, raisin or plain, dusted with confectioner’s sugar, clotted cream, orange marmalade or strawberry jam, tiny sandwiches, éclairs, pound or rum-soaked Opera cake, all served on royal and gold-trimmed white china. Some times string music played softly in the background. Angie’s theater background would’ve enjoyed the flair and presentation of the last day’s Indonesian Tea, when tables and staff wore native fabrics and matching music played.

Her waitress and cooking experience would’ve appreciated the 6,000 meals the cruise line offers daily either at the Lido Buffet or two elegant restaurants. The wide variety of fruits, salads, soups, entrees, and desserts would’ve appealed to her palate, not to mention Chocolate Trivia, or many cooking demos done by the Party Planner or the Cruise Director, who made Chocolate Lava Cake with Grand Marnier. Angie could’ve shopped on board or on shore for clothing, jewelry, artwork, or other souvenirs and really gone to town or painted it red, her favorite color.

A vocalist and flautist, she would’ve loved the variety of performers in the mosaic-tiled, green and blue “Starry Nights” walled Van Gogh Lounge. A diva sang Latin numbers: Carmen, Evita, and Guantanamera. Jason Chase’s comedy and 50’s songs, along with “Komika,” a British guitar, vocal and comedy team would’ve made her smile and laugh deeply. I could see her in step at line dance lessons. She would’ve loved to “Name That Tune” with “Piano Man Brian.”

Most of all, extroverted Angie would have greatly enjoyed meeting people from all over the world—Canadians, Australians, English, and Scots. She might have conversed with Germans,or understood some Dutch. She certainly would’ve talked with stewards, servers, and families with young children, given her teaching skills.

I recall her remark “Life’s short.” She loved it. She would’ve delighted in the cruise for all the joys of life it offered. I don’t know about her interest in the Panama Canal or a Costa Rican rain forest, but she would’ve loved the people, enjoyed a swim with a young couple and their baby in Huatulco, or the baptism at the wall-less church there, for to a Christian like Angie, life meant living fully.