Lighting a Candle for Mashayekhi

I woke up on Thursday October 6 at my usual time of 5 AM and began my routine search of the net about the news. And there I saw it. “Mehrdad Mashayekhi had passed away!” A friend of mine for close to 40 years is no longer with me. How is that possible? I hated life. That you are there one day and then you are gone.

He would come to our house on a regular basis. He was fun to be with. He would bring a video to our house hoping to see it with us. And he always knew and teased me because I always slept right at the beginning of the movie. He had this rule if anyone stayed in someone else’s house passed midnight, they got to stay and sleep over. And that happened quite often. I am sad that will no longer happen again.

Mehrdad loved cats. He used to have a cat he had name him Babalou. One day he called me informing me that Babalou had left the house and he could not find him. He was very upset. A few days later, we were walking in George Town and I noticed a new restaurant open up named Babalou Restaurant and I turned to him saying “hey Mehrdad, it appears your Babalou has opened up a restaurant in DC?” I looked in his face and noticed him smiling.

His birthday is only a few days after mine and we used to celebrate it together. I am sad that will no longer happen again. But I will always light a candle in his memory on my next birthdays.