"I remember the first birthday when we were together and I took Olivia on a week-long adventure," wrote Easterling.
On September 26, 2022, Olivia Newton-John would have turned 74, and John Easterling is looking back on a seemingly magical time spent with his late wife on one of their first holidays together, just days after friends and family celebrated her at a memorial service. On the day of her birth anniversary, Easterling posted to her Instagram and shared a sweet story about a nearly disastrous boat trip the couple ventured on during a vacation that took place on one of the Grease star's birthdays early in their relationship, per PEOPLE. "I remember the first birthday when we were together and I took Olivia on a week-long adventure in the Out Islands of the Bahamas surrounded by a beautiful, peaceful, spectacular turquoise water," wrote the Amazon Herb Company founder, 70, adding that they stayed in a secluded island house with no nearby roads and had to travel everywhere by boat.
"There are so many islands there [that] you almost always have an island in sight when you're out on your boat," continued Easterling. "It was private, it was wonderful, and we would take the boat to uninhabited islands and beach it and just explore — just the two of us."
After their one-day visit to Great Guana Cay, the pair faced a storm full of heavy, intense winds, cloudy skies, "stinging" rain, and "choppy" gray waters. "Olivia got behind me holding tight as I was navigating this 23-foot-runabout with a center consul," he wrote. "The only instrument was a magnetic compass."
"I had a bearing on Elbow Cay but there was no visibility," recalled Easterling, who then began "wondering if the currents and the wind" led their boat away from the Bahamas and in the direction of Africa. "But, as quickly as the storm started, the winds died down, the rain stopped, the sun poked through and the seas turned back to that beautiful turquoise."
He said they soon "could see the Hopetown Lighthouse on Elbow Cay" and realized they were "perfectly on course."
"The rainbow started on the left and crystallized all the way over — horizon to horizon — and that's when the dolphins started jumping at the bow of the boat leading us under the rainbow," wrote Easterling. "Oliva looked at me like I was a superhero and I knew it was mostly blind faith and dumb luck."
He added, "As the dolphins led us over the gorgeous aqua water, under the rainbow towards the lighthouse, we both recognized the fingerprints of the supernatural were all over this — and that's the way we lived our life." Easterling's post concluded, "Every day with Olivia there was a hint of magic and [an] everyday day with Olivia was a bit of the supernatural. Happy Birthday, Honey — I love you!"
Newton-John died on August 8, 2022, after a long battle with cancer.
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Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Scott Barbour
