My heart is heavy today. Today I learned that my friend of over 57 years, as well as my former law office partner, passed away after an extended battle with cancer. I have lost a few friends and acquaintances lately, but this one really hurts. This one has a deeper meaning than any loss other than my parents. 

In March 1967, my dad moved us from the Sunset Heights area of El Paso to the Lakeside neighborhood. That meant starting a new school for my brother and me. Mr. Rhymes directed me to sit at the back of his 5th grade classroom at Ascarate Elementary. That was the beginning of a new chapter in my life, and I met some people who are part of it today. One was Hugo Echavarri, who complained that day because I sat in front of his desk and he could not put his feet up on the empty desk. He and I have been best friends since that day. I met others in that corner: Albert Avila, Ted Watson, and Luis Amaya. 

During the first break, a short, chubby kid came up to me and introduced himself. He said, “Hi, I am Richard Contreras, but you can call me Richard the Lionhearted!” My first thoughts were, “Who is this kid?” What I found out was that this guy did indeed have a big heart. I learned to appreciate and love him like a brother.

We went to grade school and high school together. We spent more than one night working late on a project on the kitchen table at his house. His wonderful mom always made sure we were well fed and well-behaved as well. We always had a bit of a quiet rivalry, but I can tell you he always had my back.

When I started high school, I was only 5′ 1″ tall and weighed 95 pounds. For some reason, I thought I should play football on the freshman team. A lot of the football jocks picked on me, but Richard stood up to them and told them to leave me alone. I will never forget that.

I took the quick path to get out of UTEP and started law school at the University of Texas in 1977. Richard followed there in 1978. When I got accepted to law school, Richard bought me a book about Trial Tactics and Methods.  It is a book that still sits proudly on my bookshelf today.

When I decided I wanted to move back to El Paso after working as a prosecutor in Laredo, Texas, Richard invited me to come visit him and set up an office together. Together, we worked on setting up a nice little practice that we shared at various times with his brother Dave and our mutual friend Tony Gonzalez. When I unsuccessfully ran for Municipal Court Judge on two occasions, Richard ran my campaign. When our practice first started and we had no clients coming in, we would drive to Las Cruces for lunch just to get out of the office.

As often happens, we had some disagreements, and we ended up not working together after several years. Our friendship, however, has always remained strong. After my divorce and the relocation of my kids to Austin, which is 600 miles away, I eventually left El Paso and moved to San Antonio. Each time I returned to El Paso, a visit to Richard’s office was on the agenda. We would catch up, reminisce about our past, and wish each other well as we parted. 

We last visited a year ago, in April. It was an honest and open discussion about many things in our past, including an acknowledgment from each of us that we were a bit jealous of each other in certain aspects of our lives growing up.  We hugged and parted as we usually did, with the thought we would see each other again. 

Rick messaged me a couple of months ago to tell me his cancer had gotten aggressive. I posted on Facebook and other forums a request for prayers for him as he went through his struggle. Our last message exchange consisted of him thanking me for that and making a promise that he would fight this thing as hard as possible.

The message I got from my friend Genaro telling me of his passing shook me to the core. What was the one thing I should have told him that I didn’t? I should have told him that I loved him. I think we both knew we loved each other like brothers, but our egos probably did not let us say it out loud. 

Why do we do that? Why do we wait to tell those who mean a lot to us how we feel about them? I don’t know. It’s something I need to work on.  I love you Bro.   I will miss you.