‘I COULDN’T STOP CRYING’ Shortly after she was married, D’Arlene Llewellyn’s husband, Scoot, was called to serve in the Navy during the Korean War. Before he left for sea duty on the far side of the Pacific Ocean, the Michigan newlyweds spent their savings on a Fort Lauderdale vacation. “While we were there we found a delightful gift shop run by a couple from Maine and were impressed with their silver charms. They mostly related to New England and almost all had moving parts,” recalled Llewellyn, who now lives in Sarasota and is the mother of Todd Llewellyn, owner of Llewellyn Insurance Services Inc. in St. Petersburg. Her husband bought her a bracelet with one charm, a silver Navy hat. “The day he left to join his ship, the hospital ship Haven, he gave me a box and said to open it after he was gone,” she said. “In it were 24 charms, each in its own little box, and a note saying to open one a month while he was gone, not be sad, and remember that he loved me. I couldn’t stop crying.” Meanwhile, across the world, Scoot Llewellyn bought another charm bracelet while on R&R in Japan. It is filled with charms of trademarks of Japan at the time, such as flip-flops, chopsticks and an abacus. — Katherine Snow Smith
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FEBRUARY 2016
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