July 4th, 2007 (02:18 am)
current location:
home
current mood: contemplative
current song: Baryy Manilow - can't smile without you
Being a barmaid is not just about serving drinks. You'd be surprised at what else comes with the job. Customer service, eye candy, potential partners and councilor. After a stint working with horses on Jersey I came back to London to go to college, taking on two bar jobs to pay for the a levels i was taking. One of these pubs was the Duke of Cornwall in Hammersmith. Quite a wild pub with very unruly and narcotics fueled staff (including the manager) but the customers were cool and tended to chat with me about the kind of things you would only tell your best mate. One of these customers was Rico. An old German rocker with a big heart but a broken mind began to tell me his woes, being as blunt as i am i advised him how i saw best to advise, thinking not much of it. One day, Rico came in to the Duke telling me about a certain thing i was in no way ok with, basically he had used some heroin that a mate asked him to watch. He on this day told me about his past addiction and how he overcame it. Angrily i said how disgusted i was and he promised no more of it. The next day, Rico came in with a white gold necklace, he gave it to me and told me i was his soulmate. Being a bit unhappy about his presumption i told him to back off. Since left the duke i have seen him on my mother's estate and he rescued himself; got off of the weed and looked healthy and seemed very happy. it seems like it was only last week i saw him in hammersmith and spoke about a mutual friends gig and whether we could go or not. Tonight i have found out that about a month ago this man, who had a 17 year old daughter, had died of an overdose. I have no idea if it was intentional or not OR what it was that caused the overdose but i feel i didn't do enough to help him when i could have. Now his daughter has nobody after living with such a cinfused and broken man she has been deserted, for one reason or another i could've done more about this but thought all was well.
Rico at one stage had even arranged for us to go and see hawkwind, to which i declined as i didn't know him well enough. He was a great guy with a genuinely good heart who loved his daughter, but the world got him down so much that he did what he did.
Rest in peace Rico, sorry i wasn't there when i should've been
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