Pete Hodgkins...what a guy! I met Pete several years ago through my husband, Jerry. He and Pete were shipmates on the USS Truxtun. I have never met a man that could tell a story quite like Pete and certainly never met a man that could make me laugh the way he did time and time again. He lifted my spirits in so many ways through the years that I knew him. And he so often affectionately referred to me as, "Doll". When I first got acquainted with Pete it was by phone and my husband and I were living in Texas. I had multiple back issues at the time and Pete would call me daily to check up on me, to tell me stories, and to make me laugh. We immediately became good friends. Pete also traveled to our homes to visit us in both Texas and in Missouri. He even rode shotgun with Jerry and our pup, Spicer, in Jerry's small Toyota pick-up truck filled to the brim with household goods across country to help us make the move back here to Missouri. I will also never forget how Pete LOVED chocolate, M&M's, and ice cream! I feel blessed to have known Pete and to have been a small part of his world...Good-bye dear friend! I will miss you and will never, never forget you. It breaks my heart that you had to leave us....
