JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Rodolfo ‘Mr. Rudy’ Saquilayan started putting up many of the Christmas lights in the display at his Jacksonville Beach home months ago.
“Some people think I’m crazy. They say, ‘It’s only September! You have Christmas lights already?’” said Saquilayan. “I don’t care what people say. I only care what my wife says!”
But some of the lights at his house are up year-round.
“I’m very proud, very proud of what I’m doing outside,” said Saquilayan.
The year-round lights form a heart and interlocking rings. “All year! It’s not going to change,” said Saquilayan.
They represent the love between him and his wife, Rosie Saquilayan.
The couple met in Houston in 1966, got married in 1967, and had their only child, Nerissa Hixon, in 1968.
The family moved to Jacksonville when Rodolfo Saquilayan, a former sailor, was transferred to Naval Station Mayport.
“[Rosie] wants to drive around, look at lights. But she wants lights on the house, and she wants lights in the house,” said Hixon.
Rosie Saquilayan passed away in 2017.
Rodolfo Saquilayan was his wife’s caregiver for the last seven years of her life.
After she passed away, he put up the lights forming a heart and rings in honor of her love of holiday displays.
“She was in the hospital, so I promised her that, every year, it’s going to be like that,” said Saquilayan.
The heart and rings have stayed on the roof ever since he put them up for the first time.
“The two rings is like, ‘forever.’ No matter what, ‘til death do us part. And when you die, it’s still there,” said Saquilayan.
“When she passed away, it’s been very hard for both of us,” said Hixon. “But just having the lights up and hoping that she can see it from in heaven and knowing that we’re thinking of her. I’m just very proud of my dad!”
Neighbors, like Lane Gitzen, saidthey love the display.
“He decorates as a legacy to Rosie, but we are all the beneficiaries,” said Gitzen. “Every day, throughout the year, Rudy is our neighborhood mayor — smiling, waving, caring and giving back to the community. But this time of year, he absolutely transforms and becomes our very own magical Santa Claus.”
Saquilayan said he still shares the compliments on the lights with his wife in spirit.
“I always tell her, ‘It’s all because of you!’” he said.
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Cox Media Group
