FALLING IN LOVE WITH BOB
As I arrived to the City of Brotherly Love in 1976 to pursue my Master’s Degree in Communications at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia I decided to take an apartment in the Rittenhouse Square area in Spruce Street. Little did I know they called the block where my apartment was between 20th and 21st Street the “Marry Go Round,” that is a pick up area for the LGBTQ community and not too far from the most popular bars and discotheques in the city.
I was totally devoted to my studies and became friends with several of the students, especially in TV Lab as we had to work in teams to produce short television projects. My girlfriend Llely and her sister Lucy came to visit in the late fall and stayed with me in my one bedroom apartment. We had a great time as we both were missing each other tremendously.
In the month of January where we had a semester break I went to Mexico City to visit my family and then I traveled with Llely to Acapulco where me and my brother Jimmy had purchased a small condo with a beautiful pool and the bay of Acapulco. We had a terrific time together.
In the meantime my gay brother Jimmy took a trip to Philadelphia and was delighted to find out I was living in the “gayborhood,” and met a handsome bartender at the “Second Story,” considered to be the best and newest gay club in town. At his return to Mexico City where I was still vacationing, he tricked me to go to the club upon my return to Philly to deliver his new bartender friend a present from Mexico. A silver pill holder in the shape of a peanut from TANE, one of the most prestigious silver stores in Mexico.
As I entered the club it was early and practically empty. I went to talk to the bartender next to the dance floor and asked for my brother’s friend. The bartender told me he had not yet arrived. I started a conversation with Paul, who was also attending the University of Pennsylvania at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design that includes programs in architecture and environmental design. He became my best friend and started coming out to the gay scene.
That is when I met Robert Magnin who became my boyfriend and we were together fro 32 years until he had an accident and passed away at the age of 49. Bobby was the love of my life and it was very difficult to continue living without him. I gave up my job and many of my friends suggested I move from my beautiful penthouse condo in Brickell Avenue in Miami and I sold it and bought a new property in Wilton Manors, Florida. After a year in ‘The Island City” I met Jimmy Baker and a year later we got married in New York.
