PORT ANGELES — Until not long ago, Paul and Sarah Cronauer would wake up together, talk a bit and share a deep belly laugh before even getting out of bed.
They had met 111/2 years ago when Paul, as he was always doing, struck up a conversation with a stranger in the airport.
And Paul “swept our Sarah off her feet,” her cousin John Henderson remembered.
Three years after their meeting, “I threw caution to the winds and married him,” Sarah said.
“He was my captain and I his navigator.”
Her husband taught her to navigate a sailboat around the world and how to hold the line and love the ride.
There were many belly laughs commingled with tears Saturday in a celebration of Paul’s life, which was ended by cancer
Aug. 16.
(See PDN story: https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120818/NEWS/308189997/0/SEARCH )
Paul, a Port Angeles native, was 63 and the developer of numerous commercial real estate projects that included The Landing mall, The Landing Art Gallery, Wine on the Waterfront and the Fish on the Fence art installation encircling them.
Saturday’s memorial gathering at The Landing brought together some 250 mourners: artists, business people and members of the Port Angeles City Council, alongside his and Sarah’s extended family.
“My life with Paul was an adventure,” said Sarah, who first laid eyes on Paul in the Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, airport, back when he looked a lot like Jimmy Buffett.
They traveled all over — sharing their first kiss, his wedding proposal and, yes, even their wedding in an airport, she said.
But “some of our best adventures were in our kitchen,” Sarah added.
When they met, Paul had three grown children; he also had a love for family gatherings that included not just biological relatives, but friends from everywhere.
“We muscled our way past being a blended family,” Sarah said, “to just being a family together.”
On Aug. 31, 2011, “cancer entered our lives . . . It became a relentless and ruthless foe . . . a hurricane we could not outpace.”
Sarah and her husband spent much of the past six months at home in Port Angeles, as family members and friends visited and shared stories.
Those stories came back to light Saturday as Paul’s daughters, Angela Craig and Jillian Cronauer, and his daughter-in-law, Tess Cronauer, spoke.
Dad was a determined and devoted man, Jillian said, when it came to environmentalism, community projects and inviting people in.
Paul and The Landing mall were the sponsors of Port Angeles’ Earth Day activities, and Mayor Cherie Kidd proclaimed this past April 21 to be Paul Cronauer Day in honor of those and other projects Paul spearheaded here.
Jillian, Paul’s younger daughter, remembered realizing her dad was the smartest dad around; she and her siblings would ask question after question to try to stump him.
“He never asked us to stop. He never asked us to be quiet,” she said.
“He taught me to look up, and out,” to meet people and always ask questions.
Tess, who is married to Paul’s son, Chris, remembered her father-in-law for his impish smile, which he wore “every day I saw him. Every day. Even when he was sick.”
Paul sent her a letter when he learned his cancer was terminal.
“Say ‘I love you’ every day,” he wrote.
As Tess began to weep, her young son Gunner, in the audience, said, “Please don’t cry.”
Many more came forward to cry, though, and to laugh as they recalled Paul’s love of art, music, food, wine and sailing — and his stubbornness.
“He taught me to see the opportunity in a storm,” said his daughter Angela, adding: “When the house feels like it’s coming down, you can remodel.
“You have to reframe your thinking . . . you have to have a vision bigger than the storm.”
Most important, “people are the key. Without them . . . you will never be a success in this life.”
David Rivers and Abby Latson, whose former band Abby Mae & the Homeschool Boys got their start at Wine on the Waterfront three years ago, offered three songs during the celebration: “Hard Times,” then “Orphan Girl” and finally “I’ll Fly Away,” on which the crowd joined in singing right away.
Sky Heatherton, a hospice nurse, was one of the people who shared Paul’s love of art.
She remembered a conversation with him from two years ago, as she was recovering from breast cancer.
“I didn’t know if I was going to have reconstruction [surgery],” Heatherton told him.
“Just put on a bigger smile,” Paul said, “and a bigger necklace.”
In honor of her friend, Heatherton invited everyone to “Embracing Life through Art,” an exhibition to open Oct. 1 at The Landing Art Gallery inside The Landing mall.
The monthlong display of art created by cancer survivors will be dedicated to Paul Cronauer.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
