The Great LOST of Argelio Marrero..AKA..Petey

Fourth of July was a day I had planned for weeks in advance. The kids being out of school, and the great hot weather and Raul controlling the ‘Grill’. I got a call from a dear friend of us both and when he said my name I heard sadness and pain in his voice and I knew I was going to need to sit down. He explained a very special person in my life had just passed away. No better yet, he got KILLED by an ignorant ‘Drunk Driver’. I felt fear and my heart beat fast and I wasn’t expecting him to say HIS name. I stood quiet for a few and just hung up the phone.

I sat there at 12 noon, with the grill going, the beers being chilled, the kids screaming to me  that they wanted to fill the pool to swim, and nothing mattered. I sat there, thinking of all the years I knew him. The first day I met him, on my first day in school at St. Joe’s High School. I was a bit nervous as a ‘Freshman’ but he was there with his light eyes and big smile and I knew it was going to be an interesting year.

I thought about how he was my first ‘Official’ boyfriend and how things ended between us Junior year. Those of us who know Petey know he loves to be loud, silly, do pranks and is just one proud Latino, nothing wrong with that, though.

The first time I ever got in trouble in school was with one of his pranks when he got a condom, inflated it with air and put my name on it in black marker and stuffed it in my locker. I go to change classes open the door and here comes floating away this condom with my name. It flew up in the celing of the hallways and I could not catch it and we went to Catholic Schools He is laughing and I am chasing this condom down the halls asking my classmates to grab it . Those nuns thought I was a demon. I was so mad at Petey, I broke up with him, and he would just smile and do some silly dance that use to make me laugh and before I knew it, we were holding hands and he was walking me home. We use to walk in Hamilton Park on Boulevard East and he would tell me his dreams and the things he wanted to do with his life.

He drove me crazy, I was too calm for his wild ways, but I loved him to death. Years went by and his family opened a very famous Cuban restaurant ‘Pan Con Todo’  in Union City, New Jersey, on Bergenline Avenue.

I would go there with my family and he would give me a big kiss and a hug, and he just loved my daughter. He would just stare at her and couldn’t beleive how much she reminded him of me.

He was talented, a good skater, a devoted son, a supportive brother, a good dj, barternder, fun ‘boyfriend’, steamy kisser, crazy loud mouth and one of the funniest and most real, good hearted person you could ever meet. He made friends where ever he went and he will NEVER be forgotten.

I am not sure how his family and friends now have to continue living without his smile, his squeeky/rasphy voice, or the sound of his laughter. He lived in our lives a short time, but he sure made that time count.

Tomorrow I will be at his service and I don’t know how I am going to keep it all together. May God bless his family and give them strength. We lost someone great, and I mean super great.

With a broken heart..I sign off..not as ‘Olga’ but as Olgi..his knickname for me.