The Kindest Man I Ever Knew

[JRNOFEXPRS]

For eight years, I showed up to massage the same man every week.

His name was Erasmo.

Two hours. Every week. Like clockwork.

He used to pay in advance because I gave him a discounted rate for consistency. In all those years, I never once heard him speak badly about another human being. Not once.

Funny how certain realizations don’t hit until someone is gone.

Erasmo worked as a janitor for the same school for roughly thirty years. Quiet life. Quiet discipline. The kind of man most people overlook because he never demanded attention from the room.

He retired… and passed away about a year later from a heart attack.

What stayed with me was how routine his life was. Morning workouts. Early discipline. Predictable structure. I used to warn him about pushing too hard in the mornings because cardiovascular events statistically rise during the early hours after waking.

Research has shown that between roughly 6 AM and noon, the risk of heart attack and sudden cardiac events increases significantly due to the body’s circadian rhythm. Blood pressure rises. Cortisol and adrenaline surge. The blood becomes more prone to clotting after waking. 

None of this means exercise is bad. Exercise is life.

But the human body is strange. Vulnerable. Rhythmic.

And sometimes the people who seem the steadiest leave the quietest absence behind them.

After eight years, I realized something rare about him:

Kind people really do exist.