Hi Hugo, we miss you (Friday, February 14, 2003)

I don’t know this guy very well. I met him just about 2 months ago. All I know it he is a nice guy, and easy to talk. His name is Hugo, a Mexican, living in Mission area, San Francisco. In fact, he is my co-worker, and we are working together at a restaurant. Hugo works as kitchen helper in the kitchen.

I still remember he bought a case of bottled water from our store for his co-workers in the kitchen. It was just yesterday. I still remember his smiling face. The fact that I am mentioning him so much is that Hugo, only 18 years old, a guy with good future, is no longer in this world. He died on Thursday night, February 13, 2003, the day after he bought the water from the store. More shockingly, someone with whom Hugo might have had some problem in the past killed him. All of us were shocked and felt deeply sorry for him.

No one knows what actually happened on the night, and how. According to a close friend of him who is also working at another restaurant in the same building, Hugo was shot several times while he was shopping at a store. A car filled with some Mexican guys passing the store, and someone inside the car shot him. Hugo ran out from the store, and fell down before he could reach his home. We were talking at the restaurant yesterday. Today he was not here and he will never come back again. The bottled water he bought is still here on the shelf in the kitchen.

As soon as I heard the news, I felt very sad, and thinking deeply about life. What is life all about? What is the purpose of being a human on this planet earth? Are all of us predestined? Or is it cause and consequence? Can we see our destiny or future? I know no one can give satisfactory answers, and no one can solve those questions yet.

Anyway, the only thing I know is life is so precious, and being a human is a great present from (I might say) God, an unknown mysterious creator of the universe.

No matter what, we have to move on. Life is so short that we don’t have time to be worried, unhappy, and unsatisfied. All we need is to show our love to others, to see positive side of a situation, to help someone who is in trouble, to understand each other, to forgive others, and to see things clearly.

Dear Hugo, all of us miss you, and remember you.
May your soul rests peacefully somewhere in the universe.