Photo: Walter McBride/WireImage
Amanda Klootsis looking back on treasured memories.
InTravel + Leisure’s first-ever digital issue, the cover star spoke about the last trip she took with her late husband,Nick Cordero, whodied in July 2020due to COVID-19 complications.
Kloots shared that since Cordero’s Broadway schedule didn’t leave much room open for travel, a five-weekhoneymoonthrough Italy, Africa and Bali was the most special treat for the pair.
Despite having an amazing time at a friend’s wedding and a safari on the trip,The Talkco-host toldT+Lthat the best memories were from their time in South Africa, exploring the Franschhoek wine region.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to this place, and we have to spend more time there,'” she told the outlet of what started out as just a day stop.
Amanda Kloots/Instagram
While the extra long honeymoon seemed like a far-fetched idea to family at the time, Kloots said she’s incredibly grateful to have shared those moments with Cordero.
Reflecting on life’s fleeting moments, she even urged others to seize the day and travel if possible.
“If you can go, go. If you can travel, travel. Don’t wait, just do it — because that was my last trip I ever took with Nick, and thank god we did that, because the memories that I have, the photos that we have together, the places that we got to see together, the time that we had together, were some of the best days that we ever spent together,” she said.
Eventually, she hopes to show her son, Elvis, the places she and the 3-year-old’s dad explored in South Africa.
Jessica Sample for TRAVEL + LEISURE
Late last year, Kloots opened up to PEOPLE about how she moved out of the home she and Cordero shared together.
“I was terrified to move,” she told PEOPLE exclusively of the purchase that’s just down the street from where she previously lived.
The couple married in 2017 and moved to the West Coast from New York City together in March 2020 to fulfill the Broadway actor’s dream of living in California.
Kloots, who is also a fitness instructor and dancer, said she felt her husband’s presence around her the very first time she entered her new home.
“I moved here in May of 2021 and it’s been wonderful,” Kloots told PEOPLE. “I love this little house. It feels very much like Nick shifted us here. It was as soon as I walked in, there were just many, many signs.”
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“Above the piano, there was this picture of an astronaut in a full suit with the globe on, floating away from earth,” she shared. “One of the things I give other people that are grieving is a little astronaut pin, because you feel so far away when you’re going through the first stages of grief, in my opinion. You just feel like everything’s happening around you and you can’t really hear.”
Now that the mother of one has officially settled into her new space, she’s keeping Cordero’s memory alive with her own little nods.
“There’s a lot,” Kloots said of the tokens to her late husband sprinkled throughout the home, including in reference to his song “Live Your Life,” which Kloots played during his time in the hospital. “There’s a beautiful photo, a painting upstairs on the top of the hallway. In Elvis’ room, there’s a couple pillows that have his face printed on it. All these table books are his.”
She added: “Our first home was our dream house, but this would be Nick’s dream home. He would’ve walked in this house and been like, ‘I don’t know what we have to do, what we have to sell, but we’re buying this house.’ I just felt right.”
source: people.com
