Torrez, Cipriano E

My encounter with Cip was brief but intense. My lover and I met him one night and brought him to our home. We spent the night, the three of us and I gave him a ride home the next morning. He didn't want me to leave, to be alone. We made love and I held him as he cried. I never saw him again but would drive by his building for many years, always getting a tear in my eye as I remember the beautiful boy that was lost

I am that lover mentioned above. I can't remember how we met Cip, but that encounter has haunted me ever since. He was a confused young man, but so it is with young men. He did not get the chance to learn and grow. He had vision; he just needed some time to focus. So glad we met him; so sad he is gone.

I have never seen this obituary until this day. Cippy was my childhood friend. Our two families grew up together in Erie, Colorado and were close even when they moved to Ft. Collins. Because I had no brothers, Cip and his brother Tim were truly my brothers in every sense of the word. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him. He had an infectious smile and a lust for life that inspires me to this day. I tried to see him a few months before he passed and he wouldn't let me see him, his mother told me that he didn't want his old friends to see him in that condition. I am haunted by that every time I think of him, his thoughts even when dying were of others. I miss my friend and will always remember his smile.