Forums: Waiting for Godot:

(I just need to get this off my chest, don't feel the need to read this)

I don't have any brothers or sisters, and when I was younger, my parents hosted students from all over the world that came to our town to learn English at the local college. We had over 40 people live with us over about 10 years, and some of them stayed with us for many years at a time.

Some of them made a real impact on me and since I didn't have any siblings, I considered them my "brothers" and "sisters". We had multiple people from the same family live with us, and one of those families was the Velez family, from Medellin, Columbia. Jorge, the oldest son first lived with us for a year, and then his little brother Luis Guillermo Vélez Arango lived with us for 2. While Luis was here, his sister stayed with another family in the same neighborhood and towards the end of his stay, his mother and father even came and visited us for a week or so. Luis was part of our family, he went on vacation with us, he stayed at my grandparents with us, etc. Even after he went home, he kept in contact with us, on and off, for the last 10 years.

When he went home he didn't become a doctor like his brother or father, he became a civil engineer because he wanted to help the people of his city, which is a very hard place to live (literally the murder capital of the world).

Just a few months ago he connected with me on facebook. He would have turned 30 this year. He was telling me all about his life and how he was investing his money in a sustainable farm in the countryside.

"I am investing most of the money that I am earning on a project to cultivate rubber trees (Hevea brasilensis) that is the plant were we can get natural rubber. It will have about 370 acres planted with trees and the whole farm has about 1186 acres but we are goinr to use some areas the plant other species of trees to get wood and breed animals too."

He was a great man and a wonderful friend and he passed away in a traffic accident last Monday. I'm absolutely devastated because we now have no way to contact his family (he was our point of contact with them) and I'll never be able to pay my respects. It was not his time, and he surely didn't deserve it. And to top it off, we learned this from one of my "sisters" who lives in Japan, and she said that Luis and her had been making tentative plans to make a surprise visit to us.

I'm a pile of mush today.

Hasta Siempre Luis.

I'm very sorry for your loss, man. Definitely too young, too soon.

I am so sorry to hear that. What a tragedy.

Very sorry to hear it.

My condolences to you for the loss of your friend and his family for the loss of their child.

Condolences mate

sorry to hear that man

Condolences

sorry to hear that, rds..

Well this just made my day worse...

so sorry man...

:40oz:


All I can say is that there are a LOT worse ways to die in Medellin.

I hope you are able to find a way to reconnect with the family.

Very sorry to hear it.

shitty dude. I'm sorry for your loss, I hope you are able to find a way to reach his family

my condolences, losing a friend is never easy.

thank you for sharing your story.

I am very sorry for your loss... hope you end up restoring contact.




:40oz:

I just went through a similar experience. You have my condolences.

Hey, at least you don't have to sit through a 4.5 hour Catholic funeral. Look on the bright side!

Yes, I'm going to hell.

My condolences for your loss. Too young.