João

João was one of my parents best friends. He was an airplane pilot. I loved João! He was funny, he would pampered me and he would spoil me with gifts. 

João was that crazy friend your parents have (mine had a lot of them!). He would sleep during the day and "live" during the night. He was not a real good model because of his lifestyle but he was like an uncle to me. Eventually he and my parents stopped talking for some reason but my parents always let my brother and I spend time with him. We never lost contact! Later they started talking again and João started to go to our house again. 

I would not stop writing if I started to tell all of João's adventures. I know my fear of airplanes exists because of him because he was always telling these stories about flying and I grew up listening to them and I would imagine all of that! He had this thing to get himself in trouble always! And I loved to make fun of him! I was his biggest fan but I was also the one that would tell him when he would cross the line with the things he said. He had a big heart and I always felt lucky because I knew I was the "apple of his eyes" and that he would do anything I needed.

His death devastated me. It was out of the blue and he was the first person that I loved that I lost. It took me a while to recover and I still see the pain in my brother's eyes when we found out. We lost more than a friend that day. We lost someone with whom we grew up with, that was our friend, our confident, that was family.

I miss him everyday and I really, really would like to have him here with me while I'm getting through this. I like to think that he's up there somewhere looking after me and I wish I'm making him proud.

"You and I will meet again, when we're least expecting it. One day in some far-off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye, my friend, for you and I will meet again." —Tom Petty