Tito Puente's death this week was significant to many people in the Virgin Islands, but particularly to Blanca Smith, owner of Villa Blanca.
"Tito and his band stayed here for a week in the late 80s when he played a concert at Reichhold and we became instant friends for life – you know two Puerto Ricans," Smith laughed.
"For a whole week they rehearsed on my patio and I lived with this wonderful free show. It was terrific," she reminisced.
Several times during the ensuing years he showed up at her door, off a ship where he was entertaining, and they would spend the day together. She remembered he talked about his wife and family and the many awards he had received which she says, seemed to amaze him. He wanted her to come visit them in New York.
When he played the BeachJam at Magens Bay in 1999 she was unable to attend because she was needed to mind the hotel. Tito's entourage had grown too large for Villa Blanca so it looked like she was not going to see him. But the morning after the concert he called to invite her to lunch.
"He was there almost before I got my clothes changed. We had drinks here on the patio and caught up on each other's lives. I told him I was planning to open a restaurant. He said, 'you call me and if I'm free I'll fly down immediately and make it the grandest of openings,' " Smith said.
Then he took her to lunch at Palm Court, Harbor View where they spent the rest of the afternoon, until she accompanied him to the airport, helped him fill out his customs forms and gave him a last goodbye kiss.
Puente died Wednesday from complications from heart surgery. He was 77. He had recorded 118 albums and CDs and won five Grammy Awards in his long career.
The music you hear throughout Villa Blanca this week is, of course, the music of Tito Puente. The music and the memories live on.
