3/1/2001
To the Parents of Juan Francisco Pulido,
I know this is a difficult time for you and your family, please know that I also share your grief over the loss of your son. My name is Paul Tigan and I am a student at the University of Saint Thomas. I have decided to write you to let you know that your son Juan had a profound effect on my life in the last year he was at St. Thomas. I will tell you a story about the day Juan changed my life and gave me a sense of direction and purpose.
It was a beautiful fall day on campus, and I had just begun my first class about creative writing. I remember sitting on a bench trying to write my first poem while all of the students around me were talking to each other. As I sat in silence observing their actions and attitudes, I wrote them down trying to form an image of what the scene looked like. Just then Juan, who I had met and become friends with on previous occasions, sat down next to me. He wanted to know what I was writing. I told him it was something stupid and not worth reading. He disagreed and asked me to read it. When I let him, he turned to me and said he was extremely pleased I had written what I did. He told me that all the people around us were too involved in their own conversations and lives to look around and describe what was really happening in their lives. He said my work was not stupid and had more purpose than anything else around campus. He told me that “the world needed people to observe and write about the world; without the poets we would have no history”. At that time, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, and that statement by your son convinced me to become a writer. I know your son was a master craftsman of words, and his confidence in my first poem was something that no one else but him could have given me. I was never able to thank Juan for giving me a sense of purpose and direction for myself, but I know now that his memory will always live in the words that I write. I want to thank you for giving our school and the community the opportunity to be blessed by the direction of your son, a wonderful poet and friend. I pray that you realize he had a profound effect on our lives for the short time we knew him. I hope these words offer you consolation for your immeasurable loss.
Yours in Reverence,
PalPaul Tigan
“The ship is anchor’s safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won”
-Walt Whitman “O Captain! My Captain!”