THEY WERE JUST HERE, THAT IS, JUST A MOMENT AGO: Remembering the beloved

Albert John Breen - Everyones Best Friend  (mine for sure)

Richard Tanner Boyer - My First Love (officially)

Roberto Sandoval - He Could Never/Ever Tell A Lie  (kind and sweet)

Robert Huth Jr. - Lived Nine Lives To The Fullest (over and over again)

Bob Mazzocchi -  The Handsomest New Yorker In The Land (my first new close friend after I got sober)

Phillip Stout - Many Of The Good Do Die Young  (Phil was one)

Jorge Cordova - The Music Plays On (Pianist extraordinare)

As I grow older I grow closer to the time that I will join the dear friends who have passed onward before me. I feel more glad, each moment of my life, that I knew them. As well as being everyday pals, my friends and loved ones, were especially gifted in all the very different ways of being Gay people and everyday human beings.  Gay people who in the mid to late 20th Century were striving to live lives in a NEW and productive  way...a ¨come out of the closet¨ way.  A brave way that few had learned how to ¨be¨ before.

We were and are quite a brimming batch of wonderful forward lunging personalities who will no doubt be remembered for some very colorful and visiable ¨acting up¨ as well as ¨out¨  behavior.  Silent no more while attempting to find our way and adjust to the world around us and more newsworthy, the world to us.  Finding our way out-from-under discrimination/marginalization by insisting on equality was/is the challenge.  Each one of us with strong personal character that truly did astound those who shared life and times with us/them.  Gay people who lived life on the edge, climbing under and/or over every barracade that was placed in our way.  There were/are many. Just saying NO but sometimes even saying YES and ¨I do¨ as we love one another and most everyone else too.

I offer prayers of Thanksgiving for being present and fortunate in sharing my time living with such outstanding persons/friends and accomplices in LGBT life and advocacy.  Just like the rainbow seeking balloon trip to a never-ending eternity featured in the photo above, I am humbled by the vastness of friendship and love...I am also overwhelmed by the justice-for-all gains that LGBT people, our families and friends have made with our fight for LIFE against HIV-AIDS and the ongoing opportunity to live even more emotionally and spiritually healthier ¨out¨ lives.

We are like you.  We are your Children, your Brothers and Sisters, your Coworkers, your Best Friends and Loved Ones. 

May God have mercy on all of us, now and before, and for all whom we love may we/they be granted peace and peace of mind. 

Leonardo Ricardo/Leonard Clark

Please add names of more of the beloved at the Comments section if you would like.