Progreso loses another great friend, Albor Ruiz, in the span of less than 24 hours
It’s been a beautiful morning, but not a good day. In a matter of less than an hour this morning, I’ve learned of the passing of two people I considered friends. Here in Miami, late last night, Albor Ruiz, a renowned columnist for the New York Daily News, and in his last years for the Al Día News, has passed.
I first met Albor in 1970, at the University of Florida. I was just a recently arrived kid from Miami; Albor was older, in grad school, and introduced to me by my father. He was a brave man, a good man. He lived his beliefs and didn’t stray from them. He was one of those Cubans, and there have been many, who started as combatants against the Cuban Revolution only to later work to unite the broken Cuban family.
I leave you with one of his last columns published on May 27, 2020, written when he moved to Homestead, Florida, to begin his life, as he called it, a “‘new old life’ (or an ‘old-new life,’ take your pick). It was written for Al Día News:
THE VOCATION OF AGING
I was asked to write a column about what it means for me to have left behind New York City after 39 years to begin a “new old life” (or an “old-new life,” take your pick) in an assisted living facility in Florida this past February.
It hasn’t been easy. New York opened many doors for me. It was difficult to leave the place where I had a career I loved in journalism, and where I had friends and family, enemies and lovers, haters and admirers, that is, the place where I was able to lead a full life.
Even at a ripe 79 years, I still don’t have “vocación de anciano.” Actually, my mind is boiling with projects, plans, and ideas, some of which will, with a little luck, be fulfilled, but others will not because of the unavoidable limitations imposed on our bodies by the passing of time.
Which is why I decided to enter this new stage of my life and move to a place where needing a wheelchair or help to get on and off your bed was not strange or a burden on friends and family.
Luckily, The Palace Gardens, in Homestead, FL. the facility I now share with about 200 other elderly men and women, is outstanding. What makes it so is not so much the beautiful building and the great food, but the people who work here, mostly immigrant women whose care, patience, and compassion makes the transition to the life of the elderly much easier.
Of course, the fact I still write a column for Al Día News and am working on a second book of poetry also helps. It means that it wasn’t my whole life what I left behind when I moved to Florida. I am still a writer very much in tune with reality, with the terrible times we are living through, the seemingly never-ending pandemic, and Donald Trump who without a doubt, has earned the title of the worst president in U.S. history.
Do I miss New York? Of course, I do, so much so that sometimes it hurts. Do I want to go back? No, I don’t, this is who I am right now: I’m getting the care I need as an old man. And as long I remain above ground I intend to be involved, active and productive. After all, as someone said, youth is wasted on the young.
Albor Ruiz is one of those people who is not easily forgotten.
Rest in peace, Albor.
