We rushed to room 119 and found Willy sitting next to Rocky holding his hand, a tear running down his cheek.
He looked up at me, “he’s been asking for you Ash.”
I went to the chair on the other side of the bed and took Rocky’s other hand, I whispered, “I’m here Rocky.”
He opened his slightly, “sorry to get you out of bed.”
I smiled, “it’s ok, I don’t mind at all.”
Rocky gave me a slight smile, “where is Ross?”
I said, “he’s here.”
Ross jointed me as he smiled at Rocky, “I’m right here Rocky.”
Rocky closed his eyes and took a breath, “I just wanted to thank you, both of you for everything you have done for me. Other than Willy, you are the only family that I have. I want you two to cherish each other and every minute you have together, it all goes by so fast. I have lived a good life, with my only regret being that I didn’t look for this guy sooner.” He pulled Willy’s hand to lips and kissed it. “I am at peace, even though our time together was short, I have loved him my entire life. Promise me you will take care of him for me, and everything else.”
Willy leaned down and kissed Rocky’s forehead as Rocky once again closed his eyes and took another deep breath. Willy, Ross, and I sat there in silence, tears flowing down our cheeks and watched Rocky take one last breath. Carla listened for one last time for a heartbeat, she looked at me with sad eyes and slowly shook her head.
Willy looked at me and I said, “I’m sorry Willy, he’s gone.” Willy leaned down and gave Rocky one last kiss and reached for his walker. Ross and I quickly walked around the bed to help him up and each gave him a hug. I’m not sure who needed the hug more, me or Willy.
We helped him to his room and into his bed and we sat with him and talked for the next few hours. Carla took care of Rocky in accordance with our policy and made all the appropriate phone calls. As soon as Willy thought Matt would be awake, we called him, and he and his wife immediately came to see him. Once they arrived and were sitting with Willy, comforting him, Ross and I stepped out of the room.
He said, “I should probably go to work, do you want to stay here?”
I smiled, “yeah, I feel like I should.”
Ross nodded, “I knew you would, I’ll pick you up after work. If you want to leave sooner, just give a call and I’ll come get you.”
I said, “thank you, I love you.”
He gave me a kiss, “I love you too, just call if you need anything.”
As Ross left, the funeral home arrived to pick Rocky up. As I helped them load him on the stretcher, I wondered who was going to make any arrangements for Rocky? What were we supposed to do with the few belongings he had in his room? What did Rocky mean when he told me to take care of everything else?
As I watched the hearse drive away, Carla came to stand next to me. I asked, “how did you know which funeral home to call? Who is making the arrangements?”
She motioned for me to step into Rocky’s room, and opened Rocky’s file, “It’s all right here Ash, Rocky had prepaid for everything. He is going to be cremated and has a plot paid for in the Cavery Cemetery. He has even bought his own headstone, the funeral home will call the monument company to fill in the final date.”
I sighed, “so, that’s it. He’s a man one day, and the next day a pile of ashes buried in ground.”
She said, “I’m sorry Ash, but when you work in a nursing home, you know you will have to say goodbye to people that you get close to.”
I nodded, “yeah, I know you’re right, maybe I did get too close to Rocky. I just feel like there should be some kind of service.”
Carla said, “you can call the funeral home and maybe you can help when they bury the ashes.”
I asked, “so what do we do this his things?”
She said, “There is number here for the lawyer that Rocky hired to take care of that stuff, Pam will call him this morning and she will let us know what we need to do.”
It all seemed so impersonal, an urn full of ashes, a lawyer to dispose of a bunch of stuff that he probably considers junk. At least the only thing Rocky had was some old clothes and his favorite chair. Then I remembered the DVDs and magazines in Rocky’s old suitcase, I went to his room, gathered them, and put them in my locker when I changed into my scrubs, so I could get to work for the day.
Pam walked in as I was coming out of the locker room. She gave me a hug, “you don’t have to work today, Ash.”
I smiled, “thanks, but I feel like I need to, besides there is nothing I can do to change anything. All of our other residents still need care.”
Pam nodded, “just let me know if you need some time, I know how close you two are.”
I took a deep breath, “thanks, I’ll let you know.”
I went to work and put on a happy face for the rest of our residents, I did spend a little extra time with Willy, I was glad that Matt was able to spend the day with him. He was obviously grieving, but he was doing as well as could be expected.
Ross took off work a little early and picked me up at my usual quitting time. I put the items from Rocky’s suitcase into my bag and climbed in the car to go home. Ross took my hand as I we started for home, he asked, “are you doing, ok?”
I shrugged, “yeah, I’m sorry if I’m not better company right now, but I do appreciate you going with me when I got that call last night, it meant a lot to me.”
Ross said, “you know I will always be there for you, just like I know you will be there for me. I know you were close to Rocky, but I consider him a friend of mine too.”
I said, “I know and Rocky considered you a friend too, that’s why he asked for you last night too.”
We continued our conversation when we got home, or more accurately, Ross listened to me go on and on about Rocky.
As I told him about Rocky having taken care of all of his final arrangements, I said, “I just feel like there should be some sort of service, it seems so cold to just put that urn into the ground without anything being said or done.”
Ross said, “well, let’s do it. We can go to the cemetery, I’m sure Matt and his wife will bring Willy, or we can take him. We can have a small memorial service for Rocky.”
My eyes went wide, “that’s a great idea, I’ll call the funeral home tomorrow morning. I’m sure Matt and Willy will come, and I bet a few of the nurses from the home will come too.”
Ross smiled, “I’ll bet it will help Willy grieve too.”
I nodded, “yes it will, this is why I love you so much.”
The next morning, I called the funeral home, the director told me he would be happy to have a small service. I made an appointment with him to discuss the details, Pam told me that she would let any of the staff that wanted to attend off for the service. When I met with the funeral director, I discovered that Rocky had selected just a tin box for his ashes, so I paid for a nicer urn that I felt was more fitting. We decided to have the service the next day at 11 am and I wanted to take anyone that attended out for lunch afterward. Ross and I were there a little early and Matt and Willy arrived a few minutes later, followed by the nurses and staff from the home. There were about 15 people, I and Willy each said a few words and the funeral director gave us the urn. Willy and I lowered it into the ground, and we pushed dirt into the hole. We laughed and cried as we shared stories about Rocky over lunch. It was the closure that I needed, and Matt gave me hug as he and Willy left, telling me that it helped Willy too.
Ross and I took the rest of the day off from work and headed home. We both sat on the couch and I let out a big sigh as he put his arm around me. I remembered the things I had in my bag, I jumped up to get them.
Ross was startled, “what’s the matter.”
I said, “I just remembered, I grabbed these from Rocky’s room before it gets cleaned out.”
He smiled as I pulled out the DVDs and magazines, “yeah, they probably would have just been thrown away.”
We started to look through the magazines, the first was a solo session. Rocky was so young and beautiful. His perfect blonde hair, one shot had his long bangs just hanging over his gorgeous blue eyes. That charming, mischievous smile filled the page. We turned the page, a full body shot of him standing there in his posing strap. His toned body, not too much muscle, but perfectly formed, resembling hundreds of statues that you can find in countless museums, the ultimate male form. We were viewing Rocky in a new light, it wasn’t a sexy picture any longer, it was art.
The next magazine was the still shots of the Rocky and Sam (Willy’s look-a-like) film that we had watched that first night when Rocky gave those DVDs. The stills showed the look in Rocky’s eyes, it was clear that Rocky was imagining he was actually with Willy, and not Sam. The way Rocky looked up at Willy as he sucked his cock was the same look that Ross and I had when we were with each other. They weren’t just having sex, they were making love, at least Rocky was. It made me a little sad that Rocky and Willy didn’t have more time together.
We moved on to some of the other DVDs, they were more on the fun side. Rocky with another guy, or groups of guys, just wrestling around, laughing and having a good time. Rocky proudly displaying his glorious cock and perfect round ass. The look on his face as he bottomed for the equally hot guys was pure ecstasy. When he topped in the film, every guy had their eyes rolled back in their heads as Rocky pounded them. I had enjoyed Rocky’s sense of humor in the short time that I knew him, it was clear that when he was young, he was a lot of fun to be around. In all his films he was always smiling and having a good time, I wished I could have known him then.
We spent the rest of the day watching those films, I was feeling much better knowing that we gave Rocky a dignified send off. He may not have lived a conventional life with a regular job, but he was a good man.
Pam smiled as I arrived at work the next morning, she said, “that was a nice thing you did for Rocky, it seems to have helped Willy and you look like you’re in a better place.”
I smiled, “yes, I am. I think it was the closure that we both needed. Thank you for allowing me the other staff the time off.”
I went straight to Willy’s room and brought him out for breakfast, Pam was right, he was also in a better mood. I still couldn’t bring myself to look in Rocky’s room, Pam said she was waiting to hear from Rocky’s lawyer before we cleaned the room out. I went about my duties, helping other residents to and from breakfast and distributing morning medication.
As I was walking down the hall, Pam came toward me with a man in a suit.
She said, “Ash, this is Jeff Halloway, Rocky’s lawyer.”
He held out his hand and said, “It’s nice to meet you Mr. Munson.”
I shook his hand, “nice to meet you too Mr. Halloway, and please call me Ash.”
He smiled, “and you can call me Jeff. I have some things to talk to you about.” He turned to Pam, “is there a place we can talk privately?”
Pam said, “you can use Rocky’s room, you said that you would need to do an inventory of his belongings anyway. Ash can help you with that.”
He said, “that would be fine, thank you. Ash, could you show me to Rocky’s room?”
I nodded, “sure, it’s down this hall.”
I sighed as we walked into Rocky’s room, I asked, “so where do you want to start? His clothes are in the closet, this is his chair.”
He set his briefcase on the table and opened it up, pulling out a file, “we can get to that in minute. I think we better sit down and go over a few other things first.”
I became concerned, was taking those magazines and DVDs a big deal? I stammered, “ok?”
Jeff noticed my concern, “relax Ash, first I wanted to let you know how sorry I am about Rocky’s passing, it was obvious that he thought a lot of you.”
I nodded, “I thought a lot of him too, but when did he talk to you about me?”
He smiled, “about six months ago, when we last reviewed his will.”
I chuckled, “his will? What’s in his will, an old worn-out chair and some out of style clothes.”
Jeff shrugged, “well, yes those are included, and you are free to do whatever you want with those. But there is something else.”
I furrowed my brow, “something else? Like what?”
He opened the file, “first of all, there is his house. When Rocky moved in here, he didn’t sell his home. For the last two years, I have hired a service to keep the yard mowed and keep the house in good repair. I have kept the taxes and insurance paid, I also have someone check on the house before and after every winter. Rocky has left the house to you, again, you are free to do anything you want with it. You can sell it or live in it, of course if you choose the later, you will have to have the utilities turned back on.”
I was in shock, “he left his house to me?”
Jeff nodded, “yes, I had been trying to get him to sell it, but he had refused. He said, he didn’t need the money. He called me six months ago and told me he wanted you to have it. He said you and your husband were saving to buy a house.”
I said, “wow, yeah, we have been saving for a while. We were actually getting ready to start looking in the next month or so.”
He smiled, “you can check out Rocky’s house, if it doesn’t suit you, you are free to sell it and use the money to help purchase the home you want.”
I cleared my throat, “I don’t know what to say.”
Jeff said, “before you do, I should tell you the rest.”
I sighed, “the rest? What else is there?”
Jeff handed me a piece of paper, “here are Rocky’s financials, he has several retirement accounts, the balance is listed there, he also has his postal pension. The monthly payments will stop, but there is a lump sum payout, payable upon Rocky’s death.”
I was suddenly overwhelmed, “my God, I had no idea. I really need to talk to Ross about all of this.”
Jeff smiled, “I know it’s a lot to take in, I am already starting on all the paperwork to get things in your name. I know there is no family to contest Rocky’s will, so things should progress quickly. I will need your social security number and some other information, then I will get everything filed with the courts. We should be able to have everything wrapped up in about 4 to 6 weeks.”
I gave Jeff the information that he needed, and as soon as he left, I called Ross. He was just as shocked as I was. That weekend we cleaned Rocky’s things out of his room. We dropped the clothes off at Goodwill, and we took the chair back to our apartment. It didn’t really fit in, but I just couldn’t stand to throw it away. We were going to keep it until we got our house, whether we kept Rocky’s house or bought a different one, we could then decide if we had a place for it.
Ross asked, “so what are you going to do with the money?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know, it doesn’t seem right to just go out and blow it on a new car or anything extravagant. What do you want to do with it?”
He shook his head, “oh no, it’s not my money, it’s yours.”
I said, “but what’s mine, is yours, I want you to help me decide.”
Ross gave me a kiss, “I will support you in whatever you want to do, and give you advise, but Rocky gave that money to you.”
It wasn’t millions of dollars, but it was a lot. Ross and I could easily buy the house of our dreams and still have money left over. We wanted to see Rocky’s house before we did anything, but we were leaning towards selling it and using the proceeds for a downpayment on another house.
Jeff called and said he everything finished and as soon as I came to his office and signed some more paperwork, the house and money were mine. Ross came with me to my final meeting with Jeff. Jeff gave me a large check and the keys to Rocky’s house as we left his office. We drove straight to the bank and opened an account to keep the money until we decided what to do with it. We then drove to the house that I now owned.
As we pulled into the neighborhood, Ross said, “this is a nice area, and it’s not a bad drive for either of us to get to work.”
I nodded, “yeah, I noticed that too.”
It was a great neighborhood, all the houses were well kept and appeared to be about the same age. Jeff had told me that Rocky had the house built in 1985, so he was the only owner. It was a modest ranch style with a nice yard and was the perfect size. We pulled in the driveway and walked up to the front door. The house could use a paint job, but otherwise looked pretty good. I turned the key, and we stepped inside, we didn’t say a word as we walked from room to room.
I broke the silence, “what do you think?”
Ross gave one more look around, “it’s perfect.”
I let out a deep breath, “that’s exactly what I think. I mean, I love it. It smells a little musty, but a good cleaning, fresh paint and of course we need to update the flooring, but I really love it.”
Ross wrapped me in a hug, “me too, let’s keep it.”
We walked down the hallway to the master bedroom, and then opened the door to what appeared to be a spare bedroom. We both started to laugh as we looked around. Two walls were lined with shelves, filled with magazines, 8mm films, VHS tapes and DVDs. A chair was in the center of the room next to a film projector. A screen was on the wall opposite the chair and a TV with a VHS and DVD player next to the screen. I’m guessing it was every magazine and film that Rocky had ever made.
Ross stopped laughing long enough to say, “I don’t think we need to do any redecorating in here.”
I laughed in agreement and said, “this will be the perfect place to put Rocky’s chair from the nursing home.”
We spent the last two months of the lease on our apartment cleaning and painting in our new home. We soon met our new neighbors and became friends with all of them, they all had nothing but good things to say about Rocky. I don’t know if any of them had any idea that they lived next door to a porn star.
After we moved in, we invited Willy, Matt and his wife over and we hosted that week’s Sunday night dinner. From then on, we took turns hosting.
We had only used the money that we had saved for our house downpayment to do the updates on the house, so we had still had all of Rocky’s money sitting in the bank. I was trying to find something meaningful to use the money on. I had driven downtown one day after work to run some errands and saw a big billboard as I stopped at a light. I snapped a picture of the sign while I waited for the light to change.
Ross was pulling into the driveway just as I got home, he smiled, “hey babe, how was your day?”
I smiled, “great, how about yours?”
We walked inside, he gave me a kiss, “it’s getting better all the time.”
I pulled out my phone and said, “look at this, what do you think?”
He looked confused, “I don’t know, what the hell is it?”
I turned on my laptop and pulled up the website listed on the billboard.
Ross read, “Des Moines Area Youth Shelter. Ok, sounds like a good thing, but what are you asking me about this for?”
I scrolled down the page as we read about the shelter, their mission was to help run aways and teens who were thrown out of their homes for whatever reason. They were fundraising to add a new wing to their facility for LGBT youth.
Ross smiled at me, “Ash, that is a perfect place for Rocky’s money.”
I said, “that’s exactly what I was thinking.”
We quickly did more research on the shelter to make sure they were a legitimate charity, and they used their money wisely. Once we confirmed that, we decided that I would contact them the next day to start the process of getting them Rocky’s money.
My excitement was short lived, the next day as I arrived at work, I saw Matt and his wife coming out of Willy’s room crying.
My heart sank when Matt hugged me and said that Willy had passed away during the night. As I was comforting them Matt said he needed to go make arrangements for Willy. He told me Willy hadn’t been as prepared as Rocky was.
I said, “well, it’s up to you, but if you would want to consider cremation, there is room on Rocky’s grave site to bury another urn.”
Matt smiled, “that would be perfect, I think they would both love to spend eternity together.”
A couple days later, we had a similar service for Willy that we had for Rocky. Ross and I got to meet Matt’s kids and their families, they were just as nice as Willy and Matt.
We also went to have lunch after the service and Matt had mentioned that he wanted to find something to do with the money that Willy left him. Willy had also been careful with his money and while it wasn’t as much as Rocky, it was substantial, so I told him about the shelter.
The next week, Matt and I went to Shelter’s office and talked to the director. We told them Rocky and Willy’s story and the money we had would be enough to finish the LGBT wing of the shelter.
Six months later, Matt and I were invited to cut the ribbon on the new wing. Of course, Ross and Matt’s family were there too.
As Matt and I stood there with the large scissors ready to cut the rainbow-colored ribbon, the Sheter Director said, “thank you all for coming to the opening of our new wing to help LGBT teens. Our mission is to help those teens who have been thrown out of their homes by their families because of their sexual orientation. Thanks to a generous donation from two men who had that very experience many years ago, we are pleased to open the “Rocky and Willy LGBT Wing” of the Des Moines Area Youth Shelter.
The End.
