Three’s Company icon Suzanne Somers passed away on October 15 at the age of 76. A funeral was held three days later and she was laid to rest at Desert Memorial Park. Somers was buried with a pair of hiking boots, a decision rooted in the enduring love between her and her husband, -year-old Alan Hamel.
Somers and Hamel first met in ’69 on the set of the marriage competition show, The Anniversary Game. This was a year after she had divorced her first husband, Bruce Somers. She was a prize model and Hamel was host. The two engaged in an affair, with Hamel still married, and tied the knot in ’77. They’ve been together ever since, and even with Somers gone, Hamel’s thoughts are always on her.
Alan Hamel explains why Suzanne Somers was buried with hiking boots
After parting from Three’s Company following a dramatic salary battle, Somers became the face of fitness, famously promoting the Thighmaster and earning a place in the Infomercial Hall of Fame. She maintained the same exercise routine for roughly two decades and swore by yoga in particular, saying, “I have done yoga every other day for 19 years. I will do yoga until the day I die.”
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Although she loved an active lifestyle, Somers did not always have the little bits of equipment to make certain activities easier. In five decades of living together, Somers and Hamel lived near mountains in both Malibu and Palm Springs and her “early morning routine” called for proper footwear she didn’t have.
Somers had “every Manolo Blahnik ever made,” but Hamel felt it would “have been predictable but not very personal” if she wore the Manolo Blahniks “for her final trip.”
Instead, she was to be sent off with what she felt happiest in.
Somers treasured what Hamel gave her
“Suzanne never really had boots designed for hiking on the rocks,” explained Hamel, “so I ordered the Timberland boots. [I] made my gift personal by drawing on them in a few words that represented our life to some degree and made them very personal to Suzanne.”
The attention to detail was very much appreciated. Hamel recalled, “Every time she put on the Timberlands, she said, ‘I am wearing you, and my boots will keep me safe.'”
The boots became a part of their daily routine, which included a two-hour hike up a mountain to a creek with a large flat rock in the middle of it. “By the time we got there, the rock had been warmed by the morning sun,” Hamel recalled. “We would have our lunch on the rock and then take a one-hour nap on the rock and then hike back down and go to work.”
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