Today’s dress is a thrifted green sequined flapper dress! A very good find. Happy Australia Day!!! I miss that place. My mother is still there.
My friend Charles and I went to Laguardia High school together in the early aughts. I was a year above him. Our school was a performing arts school and we were both vocal majors. It’s the school that the movie “Fame” was based on. Half our day was spent singing. I clearly recall seeing him walk down the stairs wearing pink vinyl pants. I knew then that we would be friends. He was so authentically himself. We were in high school together on 9/11, an experience that further bonded us. After graduation, I moved to Sydney and then San Francisco. It wasn’t until I came back to NYC in 2017 that we reconnected. He had a beautiful apartment in Chelsea with a rooftop overlooking the Empire State building. Neither of us had a job, so we spent the days gabbing about people we knew and smoking weed. We also loved collecting beautiful things. We would go thrifting and walk around looking for cool things. Charles went by the name Angel, because of the musical Rent. He identified with the character Angel, a drag queen. Charles and I are both nostalgic. We like to hold onto memories. He is adopted from the Philippines, and was blessed to have two loving parents who raised him in staten island, with a younger brother, Raymond, also adopted. His mother was filipino and his father was Sicilian. Charles was named after his father. He lost his mother when he was 9, to stomach cancer. His father reacted by taking the boys to Disney on a vacation. it was not a fun time.
When Charles was 17, he contracted HIV after his high school boyfriend cheated on him before prom. They had been dating for 4 years.
In 2020, Charles Sr. moved into an old age home, a rehabilitation center. Charles was not aware of this. His brother made the decision without his knowledge. He found out in February 2021 when the nursing home called him, thinking he was his brother, and asking him to sign papers.
Raymond, Charles’ brother, had an ex-wife, who physically attacked their father, causing him to injure his throat and break his collar bone. He could no longer speak. Raymond is on the spectrum and tends to date younger women who manipulate his life. No legal action against the woman was taken.
Meanwhile, Charles began dating Bob, and moved to Tampa. He came back to NYC to visit his father in the nursing home and was shocked by his living conditions. He was unbathed. His hair was unkept, and the room was left a mess. Charles tried to get him out, but he had lost power of attorney. Raymond had taken that over and wouldn’t speak to charles. Charles still doesn’t know where Raymond lives.
A few weeks ago, Charles received a voicemail from his cousin stating that his father had died. He was shocked. His father was 82 and a year earlier, he was standing, walking, and living independently in a big house. Charles immediately got in the car with his boyfriend, and drove for 2 days straight to get back to NYC. He had no other information, like where his dad’s body was or if or when there would be a funeral. He called me, sobbing. Bob, couldn’t handle it. Even though he was a trained psychologist, he shut down and left Charles for good. It felt like another devastation had taken place, but Charles had to stay focused on his father and the grief he now had to begin processing. He and I have talked a lot over these last few weeks. I had visited him in Tampa back in October, with Bob. I was shocked by this chain of events. Charles is a strong person, but no one deserves to go through this hell. He still doesn’t have a lot of information. The family house was sold behind his back. He thinks his cousin and brother benefited from the sale, but no one will speak to him. He has lost his family and feels alone. We are both spiritual people, who believe in the power of faith, connection and God. We are music makers and story tellers. We don’t wallow in our sadness for too long, because we also know we are blessed. We have nice homes to live in, and we have each other.
A few years ago, Charles dated another terrible person who stole his identity, as well as erasing his hard drive and hacking into his and his father’s iPhones. Charles never got back a lot of his data, including photos and texts. It’s hard to know why these things happen. Is it that we are too trusting? We want to see the good in people who don’t deserve it? Or is it because he’s a slut, looking for love outside himself? Ok, he told me to write that. He’s a very talented person. He has dyed and styled my hair on numerous occasions. He’s hilarious and always makes me laugh with his impressions. He’s super loyal, and is a great listener. He has the biggest collection of Birkin Bags that I’ve ever seen. He is crazy rich asian goals. He used to work for sephora and LVMH, but then he got sick because of HIV. He went on disability, and hasn’t worked since. He doesn’t miss working, lol. He spends his days walking his beloved dog, Damien around his beautiful, upscale neighborhood, where he was lucky enough to win the housing lottery as a result of being on disability. He pays $337.80 a month to live in one of the best neighborhoods in Manhattan. He has a spacious one bedroom apartment in a doorman building, with a gym. He even has in unit laundry. I love Charles.