Kaltezar here.

It's been pretty difficult to finally post this, one never really knows what to say. So for all those who know of, are wondering about, or are unaware, Ruggs passed away 6 months ago.

I would like to leave the details out of the hows and whys, but suffice to say he left us all peacefully and with out any pain. It was sudden, but not unexpected, and nearly 120 of his friends from around the world came to his funeral.

If ever you should find yourself In New Zealand, he's interred at the Waikumete Cemetery in West Auckland.
https://goo.gl/maps/zemLkUMTy8pHbHnVA

A gravestone is yet to go up, but just look for the name 'Jeremy Duncan Gross' and you'll be in the right spot.

There were some heartening thoughts I found of his at the end of a CV.

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I play the guitar. Poorly but persistently. Classical acoustic, steel string acoustic and electric.

I have owned 20 cars over the years, and by the time you get to reading this, it will likely be 21. If I'm not working on one of my cars I'll be working on a friends.

I spend my weekends gourmandizing at a number of fine establishments as well as whittling away my savings on the finest wines I can afford. Life is short, drink up.

"Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward."
~~~~

At the funeral, a good friend who's a little known but well respected poet wrote up a final tribute to Ruggs that I sorrily wish I could include as an audio file. As when he finished reading, there was not a dry eye to be found in the entire assembly. In lieu of this, I shall at least post the text.

~~~~
For Rugs-Our Beloved Friend

2nd of June 2019
A beautiful spirit has left the earth,
From desolation and loneliness?
Oh Rugs the loss you’ve left behind.
Why do we lose the ones we love the best?
You were such a manly upright soul
We loved it when you came to Huia,
Three days our fire has burned for you
To thwart the bitter cold of Exile, Friend
We loved you like a long lost son!
Everyone loved your gentleness and grace
You were Whanau-You were family?
I saw my fathers’ nature in your eyes,
When Manu brought you out to visit me,
With the fading lilac of your kinder gaze,
And realize now you’d come to say- Goodbye!
There was so much I wanted to talk to you
About -Poetry Music Philosophy Art?
Don’t you agree- “Absolutely!” you would
Have replied with luminous intelligence,
Charcoal eyebrows dancing for emphasis!
As Manu said- You were unique, like a
mirror of humanity, and you humored us
And spread light like one of the gods
from Olympus in disguise- but at the
Crystal center were aloof- and soon you
Tired of our words and ways. Indra grew terribly worried
Something was wrong- I felt uneasy too,
About you, you weren’t answering the phone?
We hadn’t seen you for ages, I wanted
to bring you firewood- and come to see you
In Te Atatu -but I was paralyzed with Age
and cares? I left it too long visiting Manus
And you had gone away once more dejected
On your lonely pilgrimage. We said
“There was a sadness about Rugs, he seemed so alienated,
He was like a spiritual orphan, looking for someone to love!”
And yet
you were so good at everything - you painted
our house- were a whiz at electronics -knew
all about physics, and like Kalt could fix
anything? And you were the dapperest dresser I’ve
Ever seen- as if you walked out of a
Fashion house- Even Mission clothes fitted you like
a skin- You were so dignified and yet humble
When you came to visit us- almost apologetic
For being here- But you were like morning
Sunlight in our rooms!
But you left your friends this Winter
For the last time with despair, (not the
time to be alone with tears)
Poor lad if only you could have spoken of your pain?
I’d have given you my room or you could have
Lived in the Cottage for nothing son!
Everyone wondered why I made such a fuss of you
(It was because I knew you felt so much alone)
Although we have everything we need- Its as if
We have nothing of worth, without you? Ruggs.
Manu asked you to come back and stay in your pad,
He’d kept for you at Te Atatu, only a short time
Before you died- “Thanks -but it probably won’t
Be necessary” you said with ominous implications?
You’d already made up your mind, there was nothing
We could have done- And Manu said we have to respect
Your wishes. You burnt out like a fiercer flaring
Twig, or shooting star briefly brightening.

With all that marvelous silvery altruism
and suffering sensibility, in the musical atoms of
your aching being.
You were so afraid to tell us anything
From fear and shame,
Not wishing to be diminished in our eyes?
If only you had told us Rugs we would
have soothed the torment of your veins.
But in those snowy altitudes like a far-off
Mountain climber -growing numb you fell
Off the precipice of sorrow, to
Find your peace at last- I pray and may
That wounded soul dear lad find rest.
You were like the adagio of a tragic song,
And one of the cleanest spirits I have known
Its my good fortune to have met!
In the trembling Kingdom of grief
That tolls the loss of all that gold,
In inconsolable eyes of troubled dreams,
I hear a child crying for your soul.

By Leo Thompson
~~~~

Thanks for the adventure, the ride. The good times and the bad. From the insurmountable to the mediocre. I am a better person for having known you as I know we all are.