babypuppi: [6] 98 Bmw 528i On Monthly News

Monday, December 31, 2018

[6] 98 Bmw 528i On Monthly News

Kathy Dupont's BMW sports a Florida license plate that says KAD RI.

Kathy Dupont of Parish, Florida, writes:

"After having KAD98 in RI for many years, I had to give it up to follow my dream and move to Florida last May before retirement. To celebrate and show my roots I now have KAD RI to show off."

Dupont, 56, said she still reads The Providence Journal online and watches Media every morning. She said the Rhode Island KAD98 plate stood for Kathleen Ann Dupont and the year of her 1998 BMW 528i with a Dinan package. The Dinan modifications include an "exhaust, strut bar, cool air intake, chip and throttle body." She bought the car in 2003 and it now has 225,000 miles on it.

Meanwhile, she also owns a 2013 Harley-Davidson Street Glide motorcycle, and she and Joe Pontes, her common-law husband, own a 23-foot Checkmate powerboat.

And while her Florida license plate reflects her Rhode Island roots, she is more than happy with the move she and Pontes have made. She recently visited her brother Tony Dupont at his house in Laconia, New Hampshire, and while "it was beautiful riding around in the mountains, I still prefer the warmer weather."

And as it happens, she said her brother, who owns Dupont Autobody on Broadcommon Road in Bristol, is planning to move to Florida in the future.

Dupont, a former resident of Bristol, has three grown children — Michael Gehrke of Tiverton and twins Christina and David Tatro of Warren. Twice divorced, she is not planning to get married again despite being with Pontes for more than 20 years. She said they are married in the eyes of the law, filing their taxes together and recently buying a house together. Indeed, she routinely refers to him as her husband.

"It's a good way to keep it," she said. "If you are not married, it is easier to get back together if you break up. Not too many people get back together after getting divorced."

She and Pontes, an auto body man, have their future planned out. "Our endgame is retirement," she said. Not that she wants to stop working, just working fewer hours at less-taxing jobs.

It's part of her take on the cycle of life. "You start off in diapers and you end up in diapers," she said. "When you start working, you start at the bottom and work up. Then you work down and end up where you began."

"Now I'm working down," she said, noting she is a former chief financial officer and is now a controller at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida in Sarasota. "Joe wants to be a greeter at Walmart and I want to be a Media 277-7403

On Twitter: @peterelsworth