Marylou Lavalle Sworn: Portrait of Dominic¶
Day 2 · 6:00:37 · Shawn Buckley · Marylou Lavalle
- 📖 Marylou Lavalle is sworn and introduced as Dominic’s wife of 23 years and high-school sweetheart.
- 📸 Wedding, family “Three Musketeers,” and apple-picking photos frame their humble, travel-loving life with son Michael.
- 💪 She describes Dominic as an outgoing, handy 48-year-old HVAC tech who cooked, hiked, and protected everyone around him.
Counsel swears Marylou and walks through photos and character of her late husband Dominic.
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Transcript¶
Shawn Buckley · 6:00:37
And it's hard to transition from one witness to another. They're all so special today. So our next witness is Marylou Lavalle.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:00:58
Yes.
Shawn Buckley · 6:00:59
Mary, will you take the Bible in your right hand, please? So, Marylou Lavalle, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Marylou Lavalle · 6:01:11
I do, so help me God.
Shawn Buckley · 6:01:15
Now, you're here to, to speak about your husband Dominic.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:01:23
Yes, I am.
Shawn Buckley · 6:01:24
Um, I'm just going to very briefly introduce you and, and then invite you to speak and tell us about Dominic. Um, so you've been— you're 53 now, and you've been 33 years in the aviation industry, right, from stewardess to now you're involved in flight operations, document flight management. Um, you were— you married— you were married to Dominic for 23 years.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:01:52
Correct.
Shawn Buckley · 6:01:53
And you and Dominic were high school sweethearts.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:01:57
I've known him since grade school, grade 6. I remember when I first met him, he had that twinkle and sparkle in his eye then, and he, he had it into adulthood.
Shawn Buckley · 6:02:11
And actually, uh, maybe can we pull up the photos? We might as well start with photos. So this is your marriage to Dominic, your high school sweetheart. And can we— what, what year is this? 23 Years?
Marylou Lavalle · 6:02:26
This was September 12th, 1998. Um, it would have been our 28th wedding anniversary this upcoming, um, Saturday. We were married for 23 years. We dated for 9 years, and we had a beautiful son. Great marriage. And, um, when I look at that picture, it, uh, it brings me joy. I— it was one of the best days, um, of my life. We were happy, we were in love, we were young, and, uh, we're ready to build our future and our life together.
Shawn Buckley · 6:03:04
Can we go to the next photo? Tell us about the this photo.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:03:13
Um, people used to call us Three Musketeers. Uh, we had one child, Michael, who's here with me today being my support and my rock, and I so appreciate him being here today. Um, I worked in the airline industry and we, we love to travel, especially Dominic. He loved to see the world and he loved the perks. And it was the 3 of us, and we enjoyed life to the fullest. We worked really hard. We were humble people. We came from humble beginnings, and we didn't sweat the small stuff. We just enjoyed life. We liked to have a lot of good friends, a lot of good family around us, and that's who we were. We were just good people. We still are. Well-rounded people.
Shawn Buckley · 6:04:02
Let's go to the next photo. When was this taken? Because I see Michael's getting older.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:04:10
Yeah, he is.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:04:12
Every year around Thanksgiving, it was a tradition we'd go apple picking with my sister and her family, and we look forward to it. Buy some great apple homemade pies at the local market and I have this picture in my bedroom. Um, he was my protector, and I look at that picture with his arms around me, just protecting me. That's what he did. That's what he did for everybody, not only for his family and his son and for me, um, the loves of his life. But that's who he was, and, um, just big strong man, and, um, I miss him every day. Every day.
Shawn Buckley · 6:04:56
And can we go to the next picture? What's this a picture?
Marylou Lavalle · 6:05:01
That's a hard picture.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:05:03
Hard picture.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:05:04
Um, that was him in the ICU, May 18th, 2021. And, uh, you know, Sean, and I'm not sure why I took that shot. I, I don't know. Um, the ICU nurse at the time said, you know what, take off your— I know it was— she knew it wasn't protocol, and she said, take off your gloves and just make him feel you. Make him feel your hand on him. And it was just such a poignant shot, and I took a picture.
Speaker N · 6:05:38
Yeah.
Shawn Buckley · 6:05:45
Can you, uh, tell us who Dominic was? Describe him.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:05:51
Of course, I'd be happy to. I don't think there's enough hours in the day to describe who Dominic was. I don't. Um, he— just seeing his photos here today, I feel his presence, and I feel him giving me the courage to speak. I've never done something like this on this type of forum before, but I know that he's rooting for me to speak for him, to be his voice, and that's what I'm here to do. He was an outgoing, fun, energetic, strong 48-year-old man who had so much love and, and passion for life. He'd love to cook. He was a great cook, better than I was. He loved to eat. He loved the outdoors, loved to go on hikes. He loved to travel, listen to music, just loved life, loved us endlessly.
Marylou Lavalle · 6:06:53
He was also the handiest man you'd ever meet, fixed things with ease and perfection. He was the go-to guy that everybody would call on, and we miss him every day. We miss his love. I miss his sound advice, and we miss his presence.