In September 2009, Daniel’s father scattered some of Daniel’s ashes in the Río de la Plata near Reserva Ecológica de Buenos Aires. He wrote:
I went on a long run along the Rio de la Plata in Buenos Aires… I found a good spot and scattered Daniel´s ashes in the river. There is an ecoreserve there and a running path. Daniel would have loved to run there. So it was “my last run with Daniel”, so to speak, as I ran with the ashes I have had with me since Austin, left them in the river, and then ran back alone. The Rio de la Plata gives life, beauty and inspiration, and thus a fitting place…..
In March 2010, Daniel’s good friend Cano also took some of Daniel’s ashes to Brazil and placed them on a beach near Rio where they were washed into the sea by the tide. Here are some pictures:
Daniel lived in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay from March 30, 1984 until May 14, 1993. Those raised as Daniel and his brothers were sometimes struggled to find answers to simple questions like “Where are you from?” But unlike some of us, Daniel didn’t take long to find a good answer. If anyone asked, he would say he was from Argentina. No one found that hard to believe because he actually sounded Argentine. If he had picked some other country for his answer, he might have had a great deal more difficulty getting people to believe it. Daniel experienced an extraordinary amount of pain and suffering during his childhood in South America while in the care of those who had little regard for the human rights of children. Some of the effects of the trauma and abuse he had suffered were impossible not to notice. I remember a year when he rarely spoke and never smiled. But even in the midst of that, he was somehow always able to find moments of joy and happiness, to discover good and kindness in people who were sometimes evil and cruel and to find something positive in any situation. Thus, despite the bad things, Daniel never forgot the things about Argentina he loved and he considered himself Argentine. After May 1993, he never returned but I’m sure he wanted to as it was something we talked about doing some day. Thus it is quite fitting that some of his ashes made the trip from Dallas to Austin to Mexico to Ecuador and finally to Argentina.
Daniel also loved Brazil and went there several times. In 2002, he seriously considered moving there and even bought a ticket that he ended up not using. He had a lot of fun there and every time he came back he always seemed so happy as he recounted the details of his activities and the people he met. Cano’s trip to Brazil came about partly as the result of a promise he made to Daniel shortly before Daniel had minor oral surgery that required anesthesia and sedation (and thus had a risk, however low, of various complications including death) and insisted that should anything happen to him, Cano must promise to go to Brazil and have some fun. Before his appointment, Daniel talked to me about various things that must be done should anything happen to him during the procedure. At the time, his remarks seemed a bit odd but I didn’t really know what to think or do except to reassure him that everything would be fine and he didn’t need to worry or even think about anything like that. Of course, Daniel’s survived his visit to the dentist but died a few months later at his own hand. Since then, I’ve often thought about whether or not he was already planning it months before but realized that there is probably no way I can ever know for sure. But I do know that Daniel loved Brazil almost as much as Argentina and it is also fitting that some of his ashes arrived there.
The next destination for Daniel’s ashes will be the private cemetery in Kentucky where his mother Ruth was buried in March 1991 and his brother Manoli was buried in February 1994.
