Greetings all,
To those of you who don't know me please know this, Raul was a brother to me as much as my sisters were. I consider Henry, Scott, and Pablo my family and closer than friends. Eddie, even though he's my cousin he is much more. Tony and Sue are the cool, younger godparents that Raul and I always wanted. There are others that I've known for many years like Jeff, Karin, Gordon and Jay (Andrew) but Raul and I had a special connection.
Raul saved my life.
I mean that literally and figuratively. One day on vacation, I decided to jump in a pool without actually knowing how to swim. I still don't know actually. Well, there was no lifeguard that day so Raul had to jump in and save me. I almost took him down with me as I swallowed water, he then decided to shove me towards the side of the pool. 3 shoves later, I was pulling myself out of the pool. I owe my life to Raul.
He was always at my side through thick and thin. When my dad died, when we put my cat to sleep, every Christmas, Thanksgivings, birthdays, graduations, cutting high school, picking up girls... you name it. Without Raul and others there helping to guide my life who knows where I would have ended up.
Lastly, I want to discuss his infectious laugh only because I have to. You all remember his laugh, but honestly after 22 years I sometimes cringed.. it was like those old married couples who are so used to each other. You see, at times Raul used that laugh to avoid being serious when he needed to be.. it was his defense mechanism. Very few of us ever saw Raul being geniunely serious, sad or pissed off (which Eddie had a knack for in spades to piss Raul off... remember the chicken nuggets?). I would like to continue typing but I can't so I'll finish off quickly.
I love you Raul.
Marc Irizarry