When you lose someone that early, there are many things left undone. One is to document his history. I've never been much interested in creating a family tree, tracking who is connected or descended from whom. This website, although not following that particular format, is somewhat of a family tree. I do know that Bruce's parents were William Gardner DeCosta and Ida M. DeCosta. I know that Ida and Gardner divorced. When Bruce and I met, he and his brother Jimmy lived with his father and his father's housekeeper/friend Marie, in North Scituate, Mass. His mother lived in Brocton, Mass., eventually relocated to Texas with her new husband and last I heard was living in California. My parents were Alfred and Evelyn Doherty. I was second oldest in the line of seven children.

We were about 12 or 13 when Bruce and I first met. I can't say it was love at first sight. I decided he was a pompous ass the first day I saw him, coming out of Brooks Drug Store. He was my sister Mary's friend from her homeroom in Scituate High School. Much to my surprise, later that summer I discovered that he was best friend to my best friend's boyfriend, Henry Murphy. Bruce and "Tucker" Murphy were inseparable in those early years.

Needless to say, those big brown eyes and his quiet ways stole my heart.

We were teens in the 1950's, and enjoyed all the hokey stuff that the '50's brought us. Our finest hangout was Fader's restaurant in Scituate Harbor. I'm sure they are long gone now, but they (Mr. And Mrs. Fader) made absolutely and unequivocally the BEST cheeseburger in the world. Add the Music, (jukebox and radio), beach parties, the roller rink, and most of all, cars, to our existence, and that was our world. Life at home was difficult for Bruce and Jimmy. Alcoholism was a problem with both his parents. Before he was 16, Bruce was living alone in a rented room and supporting himself. He worked as a mechanic for Front Street Ford, in Scituate Harbor those years, at first part time and he finally quit school to work full time so he could pay his own way.

At the age of 17, Bruce joined the Navy. Having a Portuguese heritage, he was drawn to life on the sea. He didn't like the beach, but loved being at sea, in anything that floated. And in some things that sank, like the great deal he got on a boat for himself, which sank while tied to the dock.

We married young and had the four great kids you see in our Home page. We enjoyed the poverty and camaraderie that Navy life offered to it's families. I wouldn't trade our military life for the world. The long separations were hard with a young family, but there was always someone nearby having the same experiences, which somehow made it work, because everyone helped everyone. Especially the wives who had husbands on the same ship. And I can't tell you the joy of seeing that ship steam into port after being at sea for nine months or coming home from Vietnam.

We document in this web site some of his Naval history and memories. Most of the photos are pictures he took or were sent to him by friends. Some of the ships he served on are shown on the website. He joined the Nuclear Navy in it's infancy, and in order to "qualify" as a "Nuke" he went to a Naval school that crammed four years of college into a one year program. It was tough because he studied and went to school from 6:00am to 7:00pm, and some nights stayed later at the base library to study or research. Then he came home to sleep and do it all over again. We were so proud when he succeeded. After all, he was a high school dropout with a GED, and many of the men who fell by the wayside in the Nuclear program were men who had college degrees. He did qualify and became a part of the very first Nuclear fleet, serving aboard the USS Bainbridge.

This web site is a mini history of this DeCosta family and those near and dear to us. We begin this story, or history, with the lives and adventures of Bruce and Alma DeCosta mainly because we don't have much history of Bruce's side of the family. We lost Bruce at the age of 39 in an auto accident.