In Memory of Luis Fernando Gonzalo Torres

It is a really weird and sad feeling to read more than a hundred of your friends remembering their memories about you in Facebook. I am far from knowing you very well. I do not even know what happened. The reason why you are not here any more.

We met only a couple of times in our lives, but still, I can say that I felt you were a friend. Estonians are kind of cold people, so we never say that too easily. When I read your Facebook friends writing about you I can feel that you made friends easily. Seems You could easily connect with everyone.

The first time we met was maybe in summer 2006 (or maybe +-1 year) in Tartu. It was a funny and lucky coincidence. I remember that after some event on a summer evening we were sitting in my yard with Triin Kuusk. We started playing a really silly game with our mobile phones. We swapped our mobile phones and agreed that we could SMS to anyone we wanted. It was just summer night fun and we are not the most normal people with Triin. SMS was the main form of communication then.

Luis, You were one of the last ones who had messaged Triin and I chose to send a message to you. I thought that I was making a really good joke when I wrote: “Hey, can I come over tonight”. You answered something like “Yeah, sure.” I thought that Triin was so busted, but instead, she said something like: “Oh, actually that’s a really good idea. Let’s visit Luis.” And we did.

You did not live far away from me in Tartu, maybe 1 kilometre or so. You were living in Estonia at that time with your girlfriend (whom I also know but I am not 100% confident that it is ok to mention her name). We were sitting outside in your yard and I have no memory of what we were eating and drinking (sure that we were) but I remember sitting at the fireplace and talking about volleyball, sports, world music (you had a weird hobby of knowing the pop music of almost every country of the world) and life in general for the whole night. And I felt we connected really well. We talked until morning came. Those summer mornings in Estonia are the best.

The next time we met was in Pärnu in the University World Championships of beach volleyball in 2016. 10 years had passed. You were not living in Estonia for a long time anymore. You had gained some kilos, but you had still the same smile and you were still acting like I was your best friend of all times. I understand that this is just the way how you were throughout your life. Sometimes I think that more people should be like this and the world would be a much happier place.

Thank you, Luis, for being the person that you were. When I read your friends writing to you it makes me sad. Sad that we can never in this world have another fireside chat with you. Rest in peace, my friend.