So I've been here in Medellin 10 years now; 5 months ago I moved to a new apartment in Floresta. I ended up smack next door to an American, for the first time in all my time in Colombia. He was 75 years old, but good lord, was he having fun with the ladies. That was his thing with Colombia. I'm 42 and this guy was flashing young beautiful steady prepago relations in front of me every other day, it was ridiculous. (Well my history with Colombianas is also voluminous and wild, but I'm currently in a calm introverted/save money period, which always seems to happen after about the first 2 years of me arriving in Colombia--this is my second 5 year tour)
Anyway, Februray 4 it all came to an end when he had a stroke. The full story is enormous, but he ended up in hospital, a low quality hospital that was covered by EPS insurance that he had since he on-paper married a 55 year old woman here whom he met on Cupido. They "treated" him with anti coagulants and all that good stuff, kind of, he ended up back home, next door again, with at home nurses paid for by the guy's adult daughter. Then he worsened, ended up back in hospital, and the decline from there was rapid. He stubbornly refused to let anyone, ANYONE help him withdraw money from his account (he couldn't walk), including letting his own daughter back in Texas access his account so as to transfer funds she could use to help him. Thus, his options were severely limited, and while stubbornly refusing to accept help in any way, insisting that he was going to be "back on mah feet soon enough to take care of all mah bills," his coherencce slipped away, there was no money to buy new adult diapers for him there on hospital bed, the hospital ended up stealing his cell phone while he was being bathed one day-- one of the male nurses swiped it, was never reprimanded in the end. Contact between him and me, his loose acquaintance/neighbor, as well as with his own family back in the states, went up in smoke, his bedsores became infecfed horribly, bone showing, and finally, after surgery for his horrific infections from the bedsore, and 5 brutal days of wretchedly gasping for each breath, eyes completely dull, merely a breathing human body stubbornly clinging to life, he passed away. Phew. That's kind of a summation of what happened.
Anyway. He was an avid frequenter of these forums. "I'm always in all of em" he told me. I too am experienced with these forums, in the year leading up to coming here I was like so many people-- starry eyed, in here scouting Colombia, hanging on every word from the grizzled vets, getting far too invested in it, haha. Then within a year of arriving here, I realized I was just learning as I went and sort of outgrew the training wheels, and just lived my life, mostly very happily. Anyway: he was such an insanely secretive and lock-and-key guy that he likely never would have told me what his username in here was, but he was without doubt mixing it up in here for years. His real name was Edward, or Ted, B--, from the Carolinas. He first left the US for Costa Rica, did some years there, got his Costa Rican driver's license I know (since I have his wallet along with all his other eartly possessions, for now), then moved to Poblado, then to Estadio (this is so unique I know, lol) finally to Floesta. He ltried affiliate marketing for a while, planned on trying out dropshipping. Loved the Almond Brothers fiercely, country and hard rock, was a conservative and all that entails, etc. So if anyone here knew him from private messages, this is, at least, the one explanation as to why he suddenly disppeared, and will never again return. And also, I suppose this quick rundown of the story will be of interest to those higher up in years/people with medical issues. The route he ended up going down, clearly, is to be avoided, however one goes about avoiding that series of tragedies. If anyone knew him or is curious about the medical side of this disaster, feel free to message me
