Top list item for the eventual trip to Key West: introduce myself to proprietor of Angelina’s Pizza and ask if he ever suggested to my brother to buy property on the island.
I have watched many Sit with Kit YouTube videos and based on them assume he and my brother were at least acquainted if not friendly. Going by personalities I would not be surprised if they were good friends. And as a friend with a degree in finance who suggested to others—and also followed his own advice—Kit recommended buying property, which in the 1990s would have been a challenge, but nothing compared to now.
My brother did buy property in the mid-1990s, and I have a picture of him wearing a Sloppy Joe’s sweatshirt in his new—I think intended only as “summer”—abode near the shore of Lake Superior at Ontonagon. He is holding a deck of cards (typical) and smiling with a hand in gesture. My aunt (from Charlevoix) is looking at him, laughing. Next to her my grandmother has a side glance toward the camera presumably held by my grandfather.
Enclosed with the photo is a letter from our grandparents dated Thursday, June 8, 1995 noting how they helped in the hunt for a vehicle on Monday of that week. Ended up with a 1986 Nissan pickup from Wakefield.
Grandpa signs off: “He sure has nice neighbors.”
By the other side of the 1995–96 winter that followed he was gone, lock changed, grandparents stunned, heart attack some months later, one died, and the other soon followed.
By April 1997 the Gogebic Range home of two generations 50 miles west of Ontonagon was at risk of vandalism, decisions needed to be made, one certified letter from our mother to brother inquired whether he wanted it. A May 31, 1997 certified mail letter in reply from Fernandina Beach pointedly asks details. Whatever happened next, the family home was sold to strangers. “At least Finns,” my mother jabbed toward consolation.
Hard not to wonder: what if he had bought in Key West instead.
And others in Key West, Amelia Island, and Jacksonville know more about what followed than this sister or (as far as I can tell) anyone in our extended family. Critically, perhaps those nice neighbors in Ontonagon know the rest.
Countdown: 26/296