It was the first
month on the job with Commissioner Joe Sanchez.
I was 35,
but so new to Miami, I felt about 16.
There was a
meeting with the Miami Roads neighborhood group and I walked into a buzz saw
over historic designation.
I did my
best to listen, but was so flustered, I was questioning my competency and
career choice as a walked to my car outside the Simpson Park meeting place.
A person I
didn't know from any of the others walked up, smiled and told me what a good
job I'd done representing my boss and dealing with angry people while listening
and being fair.
Of course it
was Humberto. I think he was the chair or second in charge.
I'd run into
him at City Hall when He was Still the South Florida Water Management District
leader.
He always
remembered that night and told me I had "done good."
H (and I
call him that because that's how he always signed his private emails: dash-H)
would weave in and out of my life for nearly two decades.
He met me on
Coral Way for breakfast when I needed to re-invent myself when my boss was
termed out of office. He mentored, advised and reinforced.
H even took
a chance on a small firm I was marketing and gave them a big boost to work as a
sub with Atkins on the portfolio-building Smart Plan project.
It seems
like he would always cross paths with me when I was challenged by a new
project, pursuing a new opportunity or just being a fellow core of Miami (me
next door in Shenandoah to his Roads) neighbor.
I could fill
10 screens and not be halfway into sharing all the times when H taught me
something, introduced me to someone who could help me, served as a sounding
board -- in person and over the phone -- for some big idea that I had.
Always the
smile, always the laugh.
Always a
story about the old times in Miami, always a gentle, father-figure friend --
who also was the consummate pro in every job he ever held.
All my love
to your family and rest in peace, H.
One part of
me is weeping, but the other one cannot stop smiling for all the happy memories
of a bright and kind man who lived life well.
