My name is Les Sechler and I live in Monte Rio, California.

This was to be a tribute to a lost love, a love letter from George to his beloved Jim who had passed away a few years earlier. But it turned out to be a love letter never written, a love letter never read. Sadly, George died suddenly as he was preparing this project. Months later, those of us who had loved them both, decided to try and finish it for him. It was a complete mystery as to what he was planning. George was a sort of visual poet and his long and successful career as a designer would be a tough act to follow. However, on his desk, we found a box in which he'd assembled a trove of photos and ephemera documenting the life of his late husband. And perhaps more importantly, a scrap of paper on which he'd written the words 42 years plus eternity.

Ultimately, we decided that we try and create the art project George had wanted, a tribute to Jim's legacy. There was certainly ample information to chronicle Jim's long life and career, but we felt that perhaps the story accompanying the art piece should address their life together and his cryptic scribble. Clearly George was thinking of their 42 years together, and possibly the eternity of their love for each other, or, prophetically, of their life together in eternity. Jim and George met in Los Angeles in the late 70s. They were as unlikely a couple as you could imagine. George was in his late 20s and Jim in his mid 40s. George was round and shy; Jim was lean and self-assured. George was an artist; Jim was a wordsmith. George grew up the only child in a very privileged family in Central America. Jim was the product of a sturdy middle-class home in Seattle. Their common meeting ground was the department store in Los Angeles where they both worked. George was in visual merchandising, Jim in public relations. Maybe it was coincidence, but their unions seemed to be the catalyst that jump-started both their careers. Jim's encouragement boosted George's self-confidence, and their new life together as a couple gave Jim the courage to be comfortable as a gay public figure. Jim went on to become the company's longtime vice president of public relations and special events. His involvement with numerous civic and charitable organizations brought him local notoriety and recognition. George became a leading figure in the global visual merchandising industry as creative director of an international display company.

Over the years, they became quite a team. Jim and George were responsible for donating their talent, time and resources to many LGBTQ organizations and producing countless charitable fashion events throughout Southern California. The union of their diverse interests and artistry also produced a series of widely published showplace homes featuring their collections of contemporary art and Latin American religious figures and paintings. In 2014, both now retired, they moved to the last of their showplaces in the Southern California desert. It became a quiet time that brought them even closer together. This was also the period in which they were finally allowed to become a married couple. As Jim approached his mid-80s, his health began to decline, and George spent more of his time tending to Jim's care. In 2021, Jim succumbed to congestive heart failure. After 42 years, their very successful and loving partnership came to an end. At 70 years old George, as would be expected, found life without Jim a difficult transition, but he re-established old friendships and started new design projects that helped his life move forward. Health and mobility issues during the last year restricted his ability to travel, but he continued to pursue projects that interested him. In August 2024, he suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Rancho Mirage. He passed away three days before his 73rd birthday.

I can't help thinking that when George wrote 42 years plus eternity on that summer day shortly before he died, he knew that he and Jim would soon be reunited. Their personal and professional legacies will remain as memories by all of us who knew and loved them, but like us, those memories will fade and soon be forgotten. What will endure is a small spot of unspecified longitude and latitude, high on a beautiful misty mountain marking where the lovers now rest, together again in a tropical paradise for eternity.