Suzanne Somers, his 46-year-old wife, heard Alan Hamel's exquisite poetry the night before she “died peacefully in her sleep” on Sunday morning.
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According to Somers' longtime publicist R. Couri Hay, Hamel, 87, “gave it to her a day early and she read the poem and went to bed and later died peacefully in her sleep.” Somers had been married to Hamel since 1977 after dating for 10 years.
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In all caps, the poem says: “LOVE I use it daily, sometimes several times. I end emails to my loving family with it. I even use it in close friend emails. I use it when leaving home.”
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There's love, then love you, and I love you! Some ways we use love are here. I sometimes feel obligated to use love while responding to someone who sent love in an email, even when I'm uncomfortable doing it.
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I also describe great meals with love. I express my Netflix show feelings using it. I often talk of love—my home, my cat Gloria, her actions, and the taste of a cantaloupe I grew in my garden.
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Hamel: “I COULD GO ON AD INFINITUM, BUT YOU GET IT. Which brand of love do I feel for my wife Suzanne? IS IT IN ANY OF THE ABOVE? A BIG NO! I use "applicable" advisedly because Suzanne has no applicable version of the word.
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“55 YEARS TOGETHER, 46 MARRIED AND NOT ONE HOUR APART FOR 42’” he said. “Even that fails. Even sleeping at 6 a.m. with hands held doesn't work. Staring at your beautiful face while you sleep doesn't work."
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He concluded: “I’M BACK TO FEELINGS. NO WORDS. NO ACTIONS. NOT PROMISED. NO DECLARATIONS. THE GREEN-SHADED OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS SCHOLARS HAVE NOT FOUND THAT WORD IN 150 YEARS. I will call it ‘us’—uniquely, magically, indescribably wonderful ‘us.’”
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