Died of Cancer
He is married to (Not public).
They got married on May 1, 2009 at Connecticut, USA, he was 44 years old.
Eulogy given by Danny's husband Philip Copeland:
Danny was one of those 1 in 365 people born on Christmas Day….in 1964, in fact, whilst Volcan Irazu was still showering Central Costa Rica with ash from the biggest volcanic eruption in recent memory. He was the eighth and final child of Rodrigo Caranza and Blanca Iris De Carranza, and grew up in a loving family environment in their home in Curridabat in eastern San José.
At frequent family gatherings which I have been invited to attend all his siblings said what a good boy he was, serious and studious and loved and protected by them all, and have heard about the high-jinks to be expected from such a large family spread by age over more than a decade.
I was most fortunate to meet Danny in 2003 when I was coming to Costa Rica to look for a vacation home away from my homeland of Bermuda. My lack of Spanish would have been a great handicap in my search, and Danny was a wonderful help in finding a home in Manuel Antonio on the Pacific coast. We soon became fast friends, and decided to stay in contact, he coming to Bermuda to visit me, and then joining me in Manuel Antonio once I decided to live in Costa Rica.
Danny’s good English and helpful and patient personality was a great help to me to adapt to a new and quite different culture from Bermuda, and we stayed in Manuel Antonio for sixteen months until deciding we needed a little more stimulation to life by living in San José. We found a townhouse in the suburb of Escazu where we have lived for over ten years, and have become firm and loving best friends, and sharing many new experiences and interests. His love of orchids, coin-collecting and cooking widened my horizons, and mine of classical music, theatre and travel widened his.
Over the years we have enjoyed many great foreign destinations together, including many states and cities in America covering new destinations for us both, and in 2006 took a trip to London and then Madrid, joining a cruise from Barcelona to Miami taking in much of the western Mediterranean, and Madeira. Danny had never ventured across the Atlantic at that point. He was especially pleased to find Harry Potter’s platform No: 9¾ at King’s Cross Station in London. One of our more recent trips was to Ecuador in South America which we enjoyed immensely.
We enjoyed welcoming my family members and friends as guests on their visits to Costa Rica, and also entertaining local people in our home, usually for small lunch or dinner get-togethers.
Danny was a keen member of the Orchid Club in the Santa Terasita district of San José, attending the group’s monthly meetings as well as we went to many orchid exhibitions together in locations Costa Rica’s Central Valley. He gathered some prize ribbons for his “babies” at the Orchid Club’s in-house displays of which we was quite proud.
One cultural taste we acquired together was in grand opera, and we attended many of the “Live from the New York Met” performances screened at the Centro Cultural in San José. We were able to attend a performance of “Carmen” at the Met when we were in New York, and that was a treasured memory for us. He also developed a great love for Gilbert & Sullivan’s recorded operettas which we would enjoy hearing together. For several years we also enjoyed being choir members of a local group here.
Danny was able to meet my family in Bermuda during several trips there as well as meeting cousins who came to Costa Rica on vacations and cruise stops, and we have also enjoyed seeing several friends who came here on vacations and as medical tourists.
Danny was the most patient man I ever met and would engross himself for hours in jigsaw and Suduko puzzles, and more recently in tricky iPad jigsaws. He was also an endless source of information for my crossword puzzle clues’ questions. Danny was a skilled Scrabble player which we both enjoyed, and also trivia. We always tried to view “Jeopardy” every evening. He loved working with his hands, and we enjoyed hours of companionship creating buildings together for my model railway layout, and more recently with model kits of famous architecture. His computer skills got me out of trouble on many occasions, as well as with digital photography.
Danny’s large and warm-hearted family welcomed me into their homes for many gatherings and considered me as part of the family. They have all helped make my Costa Rican experience richer and more rewarding. I thank them all for that. Mami is a most amazing and gracious lady whom I have come to love as my new mother.
On May 1, 2009 Danny & I took a trip to Connecticut in the U.S.A. where we married under the laws of that state. This has proved to be nearly seven years of wedded bliss for us. I consider myself to be the luckiest of men to have shared my life with Danny, and will always have the huge store of wonderful memories and amusing incidents we shared to draw on with great happiness.
Thank you for coming along today to help remember such a gentle and kind-hearted person who has touched our lives in many ways.
-oOo-
Note: Danny died from cancer and was taken from us much too young at age 51. I was friends of both Phil and Danny since late 2003 or early 2004 and was their guest when I visited Costa Rica in March 2005 when they lived in Manuel Antonio. It was an exciting and wonderful trip for me. I last saw Phil and Danny when they attended my Commitment ceremony to Art Edick on Dec. 31, 2011. Phil and Danny extended an invitation to Art and I to honeymoon in Costa Rica but, unfortunately, that didn't materialize for us.