SARASOTA, Fla. -- Nearly two dozen families from across the country are in Sarasota this weekend saying a final goodbye.
“He loved the South and the water, so this is our way to say goodbye. We love you until we meet again,” said Sandra Velter.
The widow and 10 family members traveled from Hershey, Pa., to Sarasota with her husband John’s ashes.
“He was a great father, great-grandfather, uncle and a wonderful husband,” Velter said.
Velter poured his ashes into a bucket with cement. The 92-year-old World War II veteran died in April.
Velter said her husband helped bring back the remains of victims from the Holocaust. She said he also helped recover the artwork the Nazis stolen from the Jewish people and hidden in the salt mines and returned some to their owners.
When John returned from the war, he bought a water cooler business from his family. He was a businessman and an inventor, too. His wife said he came up with the cup dispenser attached to water coolers. The company is still run by her family.
The couple had lived in Pinellas for 26 years while retired.
“My husband adored being in Florida although we lived our life in Hershey, Pennsylvania,” said Velter said. “He had a love affair with the South. This is where he loved to be.”
After pouring John’s ashes in the cement mixture, his widow stirred the mixture with help from family members.
“Stirring the ashes felt odd,” said Sandra. “Very emotional, very emotional.”
The mixture is poured on top of an eternal reef ball for the family to personalize. They left handprints. The youngest, a great grandniece, left her mark, too: her baby footprint.
There’s the wrapper to John’s favorite candy, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and a lottery ticket representing his love for horse raising and the racehorses he raised on their farm.
There’s a plaque with John’s name on the front of the reef ball and a special photo of the couple from many years ago in the Bahamas.
“John and I were avid dancers. Never took lessons but we were good together,” Velter said.
The couple was married for 47 years. Velter said, in the end, all he asked was to be cremated and left the rest up to her.
What does Velter think her late husband would say about his final resting place?
“You go girl! Thank you and I love you all. That’s why he’d say.”
The Eternal Reefs group will take the families a mile off Lido Key on Monday morning and lay the reefs at the Silvertooth Reef the site of about 700 other eternal reef balls.
Coral will begin to grow in about three to six months -- and serve as a living legacy for generations.
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