Sarah Tokas: 1966 - 2010

From Blogger Pictures

(France, 2005)


Yesterday morning, after a fight with pulmonary hypertension, my ex-wife, Sarah Tokas, passed away. She was 43, and is survived by her husband and daughter, Luis and Kathleen.


I first met her back in 1995 in Spain. We were both stationed on the USS Simon Lake at the time, and I just happened to be sitting next to her in our indoctrination class when she turned to me, slapped me on  the shoulder, and playfully demanded to know "what my story was". We struck up a friendship, hanging out in several ports of call before we started going out  a few months later while in our home port of La Maddelena, Italy. We were married in May of 1997 in Palau, Italy, and spent our honeymoon in the provincial capitol of Sassari. After I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and discharged from the Navy in 1997, I followed Sarah as she was transferred to Jacksonville, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; and finally Bremerton, Washington.


A combination of factors led to us getting separated and finally divorced, but even after we had made the decision to no longer be a couple, there were no bad feelings between us, and we were always friends; the door of communication was never fully closed between the two of us. Even though we had gone our own separate ways, there was a special place in my heart for her. To me, Sarah was a good, kind, generous person with a magnifiance of spirit and a wonderfully gregarious nature. She lived, laughed and loved with equal ease, and I'm happy to have been a part of her life - and to have had her as a part of mine. Knowing that she is not in this world makes it a slightly darker one for me.


I'd like to share a song that the two of us liked: "You make me feel like peace and love and happiness", by A:Xus. I introduced it to her back in 1999, and she would occasionally ask that  I play it for her on her mellower days.



Goodbye, Sarah