Felix

Felix was this guy who was my dad's friend. They would hang out, drink beers, chat. He would talk and you could not and never understand what he was saying. He was a spanish man in his 50's and whenever he spoke to me, I often pretended I knew what he way saying and I just smiled. He spoke in spanish, but fast. He had 3 daughters, in which two were the same age as my older sisters and one was my age. I never got along with her, although I tried to be nice, she often had this attitude and didn't care to have a conversation with me while we rode in the elevator. Perhaps it was because the guy she had a baby with liked me and she was jealous. That's just my guess.

Anyway, today I get a call from my mother and she tells me that Felix died. I felt bad, of course and my mother tells me that my dad was crying. I can't imagine what his wife and all his daughters are feeling. I know that day will come for me. But in the meantime, I appreicate my parents alot and I am lucky to still have them.

I had mixed feelings about Felix, especially years ago when he told my father I was fooling around with a black dude in the elevator. My dad swore I was lying and of course I was NOT. I one day saw a girl going into the elevator with her boyfriend who was black and she looked like me. We both wore the same hair style and were skinny. And so he made a mistake in telling my dad that it was me. I was upset that my dad believed him over me, but honestly...#*@% him. It's in the past. Life goes on.

So now I will go and pay my respects to him and his family. I start to think about his daugthers and if they would do that for my dad. I don't know. But not everyone feels the need to pay their respect for someone they were not very close to. So I wasn't close to him, but he was close to my dad. And my dad is sad and so since I've known this guy since I was a teen, I'll go. I mean, it makes sense. But I never could forget when he told my dad I was fooling with that guy. Boy I was so pissed.

It's funny how we remember certain bad things over the good stuff. I remember him always being nice to me. I remember him always saying hello to me. I remember the time when he went from gray hair to jet black. He reminded me of Fred from the Flintstones. It was a drastic change, but he hung out in front of his building and chilled out like nothing. No one ever said anything, but eventually he went back to his gray hair and never went back to black. And to many, it was a much better look.

He died becuase he was sick. I didn't know this. It was no surprise to his family, but it was to my dad, and to me. I haven't seen him in a long time. I was wondering about him not too long ago. Well, I hope that now he can rest in peace and now he won't have to suffer anymore from the illness that took him from his family and this world.

Bye Felix. It was nice knowing you.
-LJ