Editor,
Meeting Andy Gordon by pure circumstance changed my life yet also allowed life to be created on this beautiful gem of an isle we call home.
After a long night of catering to the watering needs of tourists and locals alike, I happened into one of Coral Bay’s taverns for an after work nightcap. Being a new father, and trying to establish some kind of roots on St. John, I soon found myself involved in conversing with the bartender about my quest for purchasing property.
Not long after the conversation began, I found myself with a promising (as promising as any 2 a.m. property lead can be) name and phone number. The next day, I called this person, Andy Gordon, and he agreed to meet me and my partner to show us some property he was developing.
We fell in love with property and wanted more than anything to purchase it. We had little money at the time and only wished for some kind of miracle to make it ours. We called Andy back and explained our situation of being awed by the property and the facts that we had a newborn child and no money.
He happily explained that it could be ours for $2,000 down and he would finance the balance. Our dream was now a possiblity. Paying St. John rent was not easy, supporting a newborn child anywhere is not easy, and trying to buy land on St. John seemed impossible up until then.
Andy’s love for life and giving must have reflected in our eyes at this new prospect as he was willing to trade part of the down-payment in exchange for my labor helping him build what is now “Dinosaur House.”
Several years after working to build our home on this property our second child was born in it. Life was created in what once was only our dream and Andy made a reality.
Attending Andy’s memorial service on June 10 at Miss Lucy’s reminded me that ours was just one of the many lives Andy touched so profoundly. The family and friends present were a true testament that Andy Gordon defines the Love in “Love City.”
Name Withheld by Request
