Saturday, October 27, 2012

Sir Hector

It's my father's birthday yesterday, but it's Tito Totti's birthday two days ago that stuck with me (my family and I are going to dinner sometime soon when my parents are back from a retreat). He died in his twenties as a soldier-in-training. I wasn't alive yet when he was around, but my mother told me he was kind and liked to dance.

I'm fascinated about his death mainly because I don't really know anyone who died young. I had a batch mate who was murdered but we weren't really close and I can't even come close to even pretending how something like that must feel for the people who loved her. I know older people who died but they've all left meaningful lives, full of love and the entire spectrum of a lifetime.

But Tito, who was young and single and was an upstanding gentleman--I'm not sure what that death was about, really. He got cramps while in training and somehow died. I'm not sure why they're not treating it like a mystery. How does one die when there are people around him who could have saved him?

Maybe it was his time and exploring the mystery wouldn't really bring him back or anything. His parents are dead now, too, and the only people who would probably still be missing him are his siblings, all three girls on their way to the mid-60s.

I'm not sure why I can't stop thinking about it. Mainly because I believe in souls. I just can't believe it all ends when someone dies. I believe those twenty-plus years he spent here were meaningful. He was serving the country for godsake, that's much more than I could ever hope to attain--I did try to get into the military for college but that didn't pan out at all.

There's nothing on him on the Internet, because come on, the Internet probably wasn't around in that way yet. But I'm certain there must be some sort of record of what his life was like when he was here. They say the Mormons kept records of people's genealogies. I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I just want him to be real to me, I guess. Because he seemed kind. If he were anything like his brother, I'm sure he would have been a good man. A fun man, at the very least.

Happy birthday, Tito Totti. I hope you keep having a good one.

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