In Memoriam: Longtime Rumsonite, Mom, Travel Agency Owner, Adventurer, Terri Hidu, 88

Longtime Rumsonite, mom, travel agency business owner, adventurer, Mary Theresa “Terri” Hidu passed away, “invited to receive communion at the Lord’s heavenly table,” on Monday, Nov. 10. She was 88, just 12 hours short of her 89th birthday.

Terri, originally spelled Terry (with a y), grew up in Bridgeport, CT, where her family stayed for nearly five decades until they retired to Florida.

Terri, however, married Henry Hidu in 1956 and ended up in Rumson. Initially, upon Henry’s 1956 discharge from the U.S. Navy, the young couple lived near the University of Connecticut where Henry was enrolled in the College of Engineering, and had three sons, Ronald, Gary and Kenneth.

“After Henry earned his master’s of Electrical Engineering degree, the family, in October of 1967, moved to 24 Lennox Ave. in Rumson, where they raised their family. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s Terri was a homemaker, raising her three boys.

“It was not until her two eldest sons were college bound and Ken was in his teens that she ventured out into the business world. Terri, then Terry, became a travel agent, apprenticing for a couple of years before opening her own agency, Alpha Travel in the center of Holmdel Village in 1978. Her son, Gary, joined her at Alpha full-time after graduating from college a few years later. Once she became a professional business woman, Terry changed the spelling of her name to Terri with an ‘i’ so as not to be mistaken for a male. Through the early 1980s Terri’s travel business prospered. She ended up divorcing her husband and met Warren Pointer, a fun-loving guy who made her ‘live, laugh and love.’ At the end of 1993, and with Warren’s help, Terri purchased a building at 6 S. Holmdel Rd., across the corner from Alpha Travel, and relocated her business where her agency prospered for five more years until the development of the internet ushered in a new generation of do-it-yourself travelers, thereby leading to the gradual demise of the travel agency.

“During her more than 20 years in travel, though, Terri was fortunate enough to see the world, visiting over a dozen states including California, Alaska and Hawaii. She also adventure traveled to Canada, Mexico and Bermuda. And she stepped foot on or cruised to practically every Caribbean Island, her favorite being St. Lucia. Among the many foreign destinations she travelled to, she toured London, Paris, Rome and Lisbon, trekked up to the ruins of Machu Pichu in Peru, climbed the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan near Mexico City and went on an African Safari in Kenya. She crossed the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand and celebrated Loy Krathong and rode an elephant in Thailand with Kenneth and Gary in 2010 …

“Alas, Terri’s high-flying adventures came to a close with her final flight on an aircraft on Sept. 11, 2017, when her boys came together to evacuate her from impending Hurricane Irma that rocked her Dolphin Cove apartment and flew her unaccompanied to seek shelter at son Ronald’s home in Hampden, ME.”
Gary Hidu on his mom, Terri, in her obituary

After Alpha Travel was liquidated, Terri earned pocket change managing an upscale used women’s clothing store, La Silhouette, in Fair Haven, a venture that lasted about a year up until the end of 1998.

Terri then ended up relocating to Florida to care for her mother, where she bought a small motel, The Porpoise Inn, in 2000. In 2003, “the fellow who brought laughter back into Terri’s life,” Warren, passed away.

Gary moved to Clearwater “to assist and protect his mother,” in 2005, who was caring for her mother, Mary Louise, who lived three months past her 100th birthday, after she foretellingly quipped, “Well I made it to 100. That’s that.”

After a lot of volunteering and relocating in Florida and an early onset dementia diagnosis in 2022, Terri ended up living out her remaining years with a top floor panoramic view of the water “in the care of her loving son, Gary.”

Sadly, the end stages of her impairment led her to not remember and recognize family members or be aware of her surroundings or time of day. She watched reruns of the same six movies on DVD or slept most of the day. And on Nov. 10, she passed peacefully in her sleep into the hands of our Lord.

Rest in Peace, Little Flower of Jesus.

Terri was predeceased by: her parents, John B. and Mary Louise (Arsenault) Goyette; her brother, Gerard, and sister, Cecile; her ex-husband, Henry Hidu; and her companion, Warren Pointer.

She is survived by: her sister, Jeanette Flanagan; and brothers, John Julian (Peggy), and Anthony (Susan); her three sons, Ronald (Cindy), Gary and Kenneth (Nicca); granddaughters, Erica Tooker (Zack) and Julia Gold (Ilan); grandsons, Nickolas Benjamin and Kristopher Gregory; and great-granddaughter, Josephine.

— Edited obituary prepared by Gary Hidu

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