Picton, NZ

January 6, 2023

I never had a girlfriend until I was 24. I shouldn’t have broken up, but I did. It was my fault. You think there will be one next week, but there is never one next week. There never will be one next week. My advice is, only fall in love…actually I can't say that, I have never been in love truthfully. I am 55, if you took all of my relationships and added them all up, it would be about 4 years. So for 51 years, I have been single. You might be with someone for 10 years and you can do everything you want to make it last, but I have a feeling it ain’t gonna last because they might decide I am out. It will never be your decision.

There are 8 billion people here. You could date a million people in the next 50 years of your life and still not be happy.

The word love is the same 4 letter word that everyone hates. You know the best word ever, you don’t have to be in love, but the best word you’ll ever find or ever say to someone is friend. Friend is the best word you’ll ever find.

What advice would you give to your 20 year old self?

Find a place where you want to retire, buy that place and work at a job in town knowing that you have a place to stay because you bought it. Go and travel the world and come back and retire here because you know it is your favorite place. If I knew when I was 20 where I wanted to retire, I could have rented it and paid it off by now and been living here for free.

If tomorrow was your last day, how would you spend it?

 If today was my last day, I would like to go back and have a great day with my grandfather, grandmother, mother, and brothers and sisters. I would like to go back and remember, remember those days with them. Just try and remember, look at photographs. I would lay them all out on a table and try to remember everything from the last 55 years of my life. That’s what I would like to do, remember the memories.

What is your biggest fear?

Fear. Actually, believe it or not, was leaving my hometown. I have actually left, I went to Australia, Fiji, and Samoa. I did get homesick, even at my age. Even with friends, I do get homesick. I do not know what causes it, but something about moving further away from my mother. My biggest fear is being homesick.

What is the best gift you have ever received? Or given?

Honestly I can’t answer that. I don’t think I have ever given or received a great gift.