Editor, Gazette-Journal:

As many of you know, the Seabreeze Restaurant on Gwynn’s Island has changed ownership for the first time in almost 35 years. My parents, Ralph and Mary Valdrighi, started the Seabreeze in 1979. It started out as a plain cinderblock building with yellow fluorescent lights outside, a screen door, juke box and no air conditioning!

But my parents saw that it could be something quite more, and have worked side by side for more than three decades to make it just that. For a husband and wife to work together every day for all those years is a testimony in itself! Their long hours and hard work were not just for their business, but for their community also. On more than one occasion I remember them going back to work after a long day to make hamburgers and drinks for the volunteer firemen if there was a bad house fire somewhere in the county.

The day after Hurricane Isabel almost destroyed their restaurant, they still thought of others by taking what food...