A couple of weeks ago my friend CH had his birthday party. It was something small and nothing really to brag about. We were talking about music and sudently I asked him if it was true that Charly Montana, singer from various bands as Vago & Mara, was dead. He said no. And added that R had in fact had passed away.
It was a shocker to me. I had known R since I was 13 and we were close friends for a period of time (10th-12th grade in high school). After graduation I never talked to him because, well, I don't know why. I met Heather and just got into her for over a year, and that's when I pretty much cut myself from all of my friends from high school. But by 20 I was back in our "friend scene", but I discovered that some, including R, had dissapeared too aroud the same time I did.
Back in 2005 when me and CH got together with So and Di to go to Six Flags, Di brough out that R once showed up at the place where she worked at the time (a clothing store in Downtown LA). She told us that he looked like a homeless guy, dirty and smelly. I never got to see with my own two eyes if R was in such condition.
Back at CH's birthday party, I asked him what had been the cause of his death. He just answered it was a "heart attack". Then he proceded to aske me if I remember the scar he had in his chest. I had completely forgotten about that scar until that second.
He then added that on top of his heart condition he had been doing hardcore drugs for some years prior to his death. CH commented seeing him near Burlington & 7th at 2am or so very "happy" many times back when CH worked in the lunch truck.
This all happened in June 2009, but aparently he had been dead for about a year, and my friend CH only knew of this since March 2009 through some mutual friends.
R was a good friend, funny and very smart. I remember back in the 8th grade he agreed to "exchange" my FIFA 97 Sega Genesis game for his Nintendo 64 game (the whole thing, with controls and all) for a week. I guess he trusted me that much.
Anyways, he is gone, and I guess it was better for him than to keep "rolling" all over the Westlake District in LA in such condition.
RIP: R. Roldan (1984-2008). Good friend and protagonist of many, many funny and interesting anecdotodes that I will write later.
