Monday, March 3, 2008

A Blessing From Up Above


Hello All,


Raul was the one I would call when I needed a laugh. There was always a way to turn a disastrous situation into a long hard laugh when you were speaking to him. I have gone through some pretty tough times lately and Raul was always there to shine a nice light on them even when there were no answers.


I tried to be there for Raul as much as I could knowing that the rest of his family and friends were so far away and I lived just a half an hour away here in South Florida. I wasn't the greatest friend to him by any stretch of imagination, but I would like to think that I made him feel at home with a nice couch to sit on and always a big place at the table with my family.


When I got my new TV, Raul came by and I told him I was going to wait for a friend of mine to return from vacation to set it up as I am not that good at that stuff. Raul was like HELL NO, we are setting that S__T up right now! So we pulled out the TV, surround sound and all and we set it up! Here we are doing a sound check in my living room at 1:30 in the morning to Superman Returns rolling on the floor as my wife and kid are passed out in the bedrooms! We watched the whole thing in awe until it was over and the boxes and all the stuff were all over the place! It was something I will never forget. The last time Raul was at my house (2 weeks ago) we went shopping for Raul's tv but we didn't end up buying one.


I have to laugh everytime I look at my car too because Raul came with me to pick it out. We initially went to Carmax to get my car, but Raul said that I needed them to give me new tires with the car as well and we fought with the guy till we were blue in the face and finally we just went to a different dealer and got a different car.


The hardest times I ever laughed in my life included Raul, Marc, Henry, & Eddie. Either we were ripping on Eddie (Sorry Eddie), watching movies together (American Pie, Dumb and Dumber) or just hanging out at one another's houses, we always had a laugh that brought tears to our eyes. PAUSE THE MOVIE RAUL, PAUSE IT!!! The times that we had together shaped the person I am today and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.


Thank you Raul, my blessing from up above. Your kind advice and contagious laughter have made me so happy to have lived on this earth and I will never forget you. I told you two weeks ago that God had wonderful plans for you and I was right because you have gone to be with the Lord where you will rest in peace and watch over your friends in death as you always did in life. I love you brother.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Folks, my name is Jude Stewart, and I edit Don Montanaro's blog at TradeKing. I just wanted to let you all know that Don posted a moving tribute to Raul yesterday on his blog, and it's gotten a lot of great comments and support back from TK community members and staff. You should definitely check it out:

http://community.tradeking.com/members/bigdog/blogs/5799-terrible-loss-at-tk

On a personal note, I only met Raul a few times but even so, I could tell he was a real class act: always helpful, friendly and above all generous. I'll be thinking of you, along with the rest of the TK crew, in your time of loss.

Best,
Jude Stewart
TradeKing Marketing Consultant

Email links

You can email us

Raul's sister Yvette at Sanchc0325@aol.com

Marc Irizarry at Lordmythic@yahoo.com

Henry Rivera at Blueser92@earthlink.net