A friendship out of tragedy
Andrea Conneely’s first visit to Bermuda in 1979 was a tough one. She was 15 years old and had recently buried her father, a deputy sheriff shot dead while serving an eviction notice, and it was Christmas.
Her mother, Rita, brought Ms Conneely and her two older brothers to the island hoping the stay at Grotto Bay Resort & Spa would help.
June-Ann Furbert was a warm memory they carried back home to Westchester County, New York.
“Despite everything we had a lovely week. We swam on Christmas Day with 80 degrees and we met June-Ann. Her name stayed with me for 45 years,” Ms Conneely said. “Over the years we would look at the pictures of Grotto Bay and say how sad it was when daddy died.
“We have pictures of the carolers singing I’ll Be Home for Christmas in their pink jackets. All of us broke down and had to leave the hotel lobby.”
Andrea Conneely’s father, Kieran John Grant, was killed on November 1, 1979, while serving an eviction notice in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
The deputy sheriff had planned to do the job and spend the afternoon on the golf course.
“Gonzales was having a fight with his wife. He was very unruly – not a nice person obviously – and there was a language barrier. He was an illegal alien from Cuba and fought in the Bay of Pigs,” Ms Conneely said.
“My father was just there to serve his summons. He didn’t have his gun. Gonzales shot him three times, point blank. My father crawled down the hallway to get away, and then he straddled my dad and shot him three more times in the back.”
Today if a person kills a New York police officer they are imprisoned for life.
Gonzales was given what was then the maximum sentence – 25 years to life, with the chance for parole.
“In 1979 they didn't have murder in the first degree of a police officer. In 1979 in New York State, they only had murder in the second degree. So he got 25 years to life in Attica, New York, near Buffalo,” Ms Conneely said.
Her father was killed on her brother's birthday. Both brothers were living away from home at the time. The older of the two, Kieran, was a biologist in Montana; Ray was student-teaching while in college in Kansas.
“I was 15, in high school, and at home with my mom,” Ms Conneely said. “The shock and sorrow that enveloped me, my family, and the community at large, was palpable.
“Not being a child nor an adult, compounded the wave of emotions of losing the first man in your life. My dad was a wonderful father and husband and my mom was now suddenly a widow, at 48.”
As Christmas approached, her mother decided it would be a good time to get away.
“We didn't know what to do with ourselves because of the sheer devastation of it all,” Ms Conneely said. “We decided we needed to go away somewhere close, to Bermuda for Christmas.”
Gonzales died in prison in 2014.
“He served 25 years and he was then up for parole. After 25 years, I had to go every two years in front of the New York State Division of Parole in Manhattan and argue my case to keep this guy in jail.”
It was one of many activities organised by Ms Furbert as Grotto Bay’s hospitality co-ordinator and recreation specialist. The events helped distract Ms Conneely and her family from their grief.
“It was a very sad time for me, but I never forgot June-Ann, my mother didn't forget her and my brothers didn't forget her either.
“It was something about her persona, her personality, that was gregarious. It was engaging, it wasn't too intrusive … she just had this aura about her,” said Ms Conneely, who returned to Bermuda many times as an adult, but didn’t make her way back to Grotto Bay until this summer.
With their 60th birthdays and 30th wedding anniversary approaching, her husband John proposed a ten-day celebration.
“He did all the planning, he booked the trip,” Ms Conneely said. “We've been to other nice hotels on the island. I don't know why I didn't go back to Grotto Bay before then.”
She then grew a bit worried that the hotel might not be of the same standard as when she visited 45 years ago, and went online to read reviews; one made reference to a person named “June-Ann”.
She wrote it off, certain that it was someone else, but then on their first night in Bermuda, the Conneelys met E Michael Jones.
Through the former Town Crier of St George, they learnt that Ms Furbert had only recently rejoined the Hamilton Parish hotel and would be in to work the following day.
“He said, ‘Oh yes, it's the same June-Ann,’” Ms Conneely said.
In the hotel lobby the next morning, she reintroduced herself to Ms Furbert who, at 74, had been called out of retirement to mentor younger staff.
“I went on to explain to her about that horrific time – how my dad was just killed and we were beyond devastated coming to Bermuda. And then I proceeded to tell her my mother recently died and how I took care of her for eight-and-a-half years, and I broke down crying in June-Ann’s arms,” Ms Conneely said.
“At 15, I just had minimal interactions with her, but I vividly remember her being like the Energizer Bunny, a tiny little thing running around and making sure everyone was having a good time.”
They exchanged phone numbers and talked throughout the Conneelys’ stay.
Two days before they were to return to the US, Ms Furbert invited the couple to visit with her and her husband Alan in their home.
Ms Conneely now laughs as she remembers how she initially hesitated.
“I said to my husband, ‘You think it's safe? I mean, I don't know this woman too well…’”
Just before sunset on their last night, Ms Furbert picked the couple up and showed them the “most spectacular 180 degree view” overlooking Shelly Bay.
“June-Ann went above and beyond, which is often not the case of young people [in hospitality today]. We stayed for about two hours talking to her and her husband.
“It was just absolutely lovely. It was the quintessential cherry on top of a lovely vacation, the juxtaposition of [my trip] 45 years ago,” Ms Conneely said.
“It was just serendipitous ― that she was recently rehired on a part-time basis, that I read a review online that mentioned her, that E Michael Jones, by happenstance, heard my husband and I speaking and introduced himself to verify that June-Ann was still at Grotto Bay ― everything was in line for us to connect again.”
That she’d had such a positive impact on someone was wonderful news for Ms Furbert.
“Going back to Grotto Bay and training [people] is also going back and revisiting all these wonderful memories and exciting times that happened,” she said. “When she saw me, she gave me this big hug. It was a very emotional scene for us but it was an exciting time just to know that you were in somebody's life right when they most needed it.”
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