The world has truly lost an amazing human being. I will never forget you Pete, and I will always love you.
Alex Michaels
@spiritdance33 ]]>
]]>One month already… We first met three years ago; I was amazed to find somebody caring so much for #iranelection while having no special ties with Iran. We began writing to each other, a lot and thus to know each other. Then, you had one of the too many attacks from HIV which left you unable to type, then I would phone you, early in the morning, very early indeed, and the dialogue went on. Then we, my husband and I, decided to travel to LA in the summer and the Iranian regime decided for us that we would not be able to do it that summer. We postponed to the next summer, and this time a terrible car crash prevented us to fly. And now, HIV finally won and I will not meet you physically in this life; OK, I can’t do anything about it, then the meeting will take place later. I don’t know WHEN I will be able to come to see the place where you lived, but I will keep my promise and come to LA to visit you, before finally really meeting you for the first and last time.
Wonderful Green Comrade, you were #iranelection best disc-jockey; I will think of you every time I listen to music, any music, because you loved only beautiful things; you could change into a roaring monster when you witnessed an injustice anywhere in the world, and this anger was good, helpful for the others. Pete, I’ll never be able to have an espresso without offering you the first sip.
We have understood each other from the beginning; I don’t why, just like if we had known each other from a previous life. Thousands of kilometers away from you, I could feel you, your sufferings, moral and physical, and you could feel my sufferings, moral and physical. Even when you had almost no voice left because of another HIV attack, on your throat this time, you laughed on the phone, and your laughter was giving me energy to cope with my own problems, and if I want to remember one single thing from you, it will definitely be your laughter, your way of struggling, and it worked… you have been one of the survivors for so long a time, but anyway much too short in my eyes. Pete my dear, you left when you were 48, just like my mother did.
You sent me many art works, I keep the whole of it and will show it little by little, because it has to be tasted, not swallowed. Pedro, they say you are gone, they did not understand; your body ceased suffering, that’s all, but your soul is still here and as usual, I can feel your hand in mine in the evening before going to bed; I know you are around, I can feel you. Pete, my dear, I have a lot of friends in the world you now live in, I asked them to take a special care of you, and I know they will; I can feel that you are going well, just missing us of course, in the way you were missing the ones you now are with. You left this vale of tears to fly over the rainbow where you truly belong, and from there, you are still looking over your friends, just the way you have looked over us all the time. I know you will die someday, when nobody will think of you anymore; as long as I am alive, you will not die, you will be alive in my head and in my heart. How many lives did you save, did you count them? I just remember one because I knew him and regarded him as a good friend of mine.
But I made a mistake dear Pete, I should not have written to YOU, because anyway you already know everything I wrote, I should have written to JEFF, your good genius, your benevolent giant as you called him, because he is the one suffering now. Jeff, I just know you through Pete’s words and feelings and then of course, I love you too, first because you loved Pete and because you were almost everything for him. We all knew that it would happen, despite the energy Pete used to fight with the monster, despite all the love surrounding Pete and all the good waves everybody was sending him. Be strong my friend, Pete has always had much admiration for your moral strength; you know we are all with you, united with Pete’s thoughts. And all these loving thoughts his, ours is forming a sort of halo around this earth to make our world better to live in. ]]>
A year ago I heard Petes’ voice for the first time. He had an audio from a rally he attended in LA up on the web. I remember that very much since as someone on the other side of the ocean I now had evidence of the real person rather than just a twitter avatar (though this was always clear, he was REAL).
Pete never complained about his condition, he just gave reports that made one understand a little bit the hell he was going through. The pain, the drowsiness, being chained to his bed and almost unable to tweet: but he did, he never stopped.
If you look at his timeline: he put so much weight on his back in order to help others which is why he was our brother.
When we talked on twitter we used to send the hashtag #Brother2BrotherHugs.
Yes, #Brother2BrotherHugs dear Pete! I miss you already. So we never came 2 meet in the end but we did!
From Berlin, Tom
]]>I’ll correct the piece now – and again, thanks Tez for pointing it out – and thank you Mary – wonderful Mary – for your kind words. It’s truly been my honor!
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