Thursday, June 05, 2008

"Is everybody O.K.?"

Those are among the last words spoken by Bobby Kennedy as he lay dying on the floor of the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel kitchen in Los Angeles, June 5, 1968. He also spoke with Ethel before being taken to the hospital.
I remember being told that the young man in this photo was Juan Romero, a busboy and he had handed Bobby Rosary beads. I recall how relieved I was to know that he had them. I read an interview that Time magazine did with Juan Romero in 1998. I remember again being flooded with relief that Bobby had those Rosary beads to comfort him.

My parents shielded me from much of this at the time, of course. I was 7. But later I listened to this recording of a reporter named Andrew West who was there. He was yelling as those surrounding Sirhan Sirhan to "break his thumb" in order to get the gun away.
****************
"R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited"
"June 6, 1968"
"He loved life completely and he lived it intensely."
"The Train"

2 comments:

  1. It's sad, but the first thing that came to mind while I was reading the TIME article was the immigration debate. Maybe because it's such a huge day to day issue in LV. I guess with Mr. K being in the restaurant business and knowing how many workers are illegal...I look at that picture and think...Thank God for illegal immigrants!

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  2. Mrs. K -

    Mr. Romero was not an illegal immigrant. He came legally with his mother and stepfather.

    But yes, since you and I are the great-granddaughter and ganddaughter of an immigrant who came to America in 1916 from Ireland....we are pro-legal-immigration.

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