Velociworld

REST IN PEACE, PETE

My cousin died a few weeks ago. I wasn't going to say anything about it, because 1) I hadn't seen him since I was a kid, and 2) it just didn't seem right in this milieu.
But since all but one of his own siblings didn't even show up for his graveside service I thought I'd try to do him some justice. Nota Bene: my sister Belinda and cousins Alicia and Bobbie did go to the service. Good on 'em, because they were it.

I didn't know Pete because, out of thirty something first cousins on my mother's side of the family he was, I believe, the oldest. And I was near the younger end of the trail. He was probably fifteen years older than me, and had left home while I was still crapping my diapers.

Pete had a rough go, I think. All I really know is he ended up being a CIA operative. A black ops specialist. A mercenary. He was indicted by Lawrence Walsh during the Iran-Contra mess for "training right-wing death squads" in Nicaragua. How do I know this? I read it in Newsweek. I like to think he was training Freedom Fighters to overthrow the Sandinista despots.

He walked on the charges, though, and stopped by to visit my mother not long after that. At some point his liver got shot through with Hepatitis C. People like Pete sit on waiting lists for transplants for years. His transplant never came up, but his number did.

RIP, Pete. See you on the other side.