A friend has left us

I had wondered where Siddha Vidya Prabhu (Sid) was on Saturday, during the Hare Krishna parade, he is always such a presence there. He is to the right in this photo. I found out that he passed on last month. He had medical problems including Parkinson's Disease.

I met Sid a few years ago, while I would see him many times during the week, he would go around with the Krishnas every Saturday night blessing people and businesses and that's when I got to know him. He knew me by name and he read the Grapevine, I always liked that he knew my name.

He would stop in AnnaMaria's gallery every week, we looked forward to that. It wasn't a Saturday night until Sid and his friends came around.

One time there was a fashion show at the gallery, there were literally hundreds of people there. It was ok, sort of solemn though, not sure why. All of a sudden Sid and his friends came in and the whole mood of the place turned around. The boring fashion show turned lively and everyone ended up with a smile on their face and that turned the whole mood around for the rest of the evening.

He always had a smile on his face he was a nice man; a real gentleman. He will be missed.