It was the last day of high school and Julio Ramirez didn’t have money to buy his yearbook so his friend Julie Murillo helped pay for it. The two would go separate ways and begin their own lives, until 10 years ago, when Murillo received a Facebook message.
“A million years later, he found me and he’s like, ‘Is this really you? Don’t think I forgot, I still owe you money for your yearbook,’” Murillo said. “That’s kind of how we started talking again.”
The rekindled love led them to get married in 2017 and the two lived together in San Gabriel where he worked as an executive sales representative at MK Diamonds.
Everything changed, however, when Ramirez returned from a business trip with a fever in early March. After a week of flu-like symptoms and trouble breathing, Ramirez died at the age of 43 next to Murillo in their bed.
Ramirez’s death was originally pinned to pneumonia, but weeks later a private autopsy company hired by Murillo found that he tested positive for COVID-19.
“I kept fighting for answers,” Murillo said.
Ramirez’s story sparked multiple local news stories and a GoFundMe page started by his “MK Family.” The page has already raised over $46,000.
Seeing people come together for her husband has helped Murillo cope — especially when his co-workers share stories about him on the job.
Linda Guerrido showed Ramirez “the ropes” when he started at MK 17 years ago. Since they spent so much time together at the job, he became like a little brother. As he was one of the younger workers at MK, Guerrido called him “my little pulga” or “my little flea.”
“He always had a big smile on him,” she said. “He talked to everybody, regardless of who they were.”
Guerrido and Ramirez would often travel to diamond trade shows where, on their days off, Ramirez would be “one of the girls.”
“He could hang out with us, because he had patience to put up with all of our crap,” she said with a laugh.
As a group, they’d go to karaoke bars, where Ramirez was never afraid to grab the mic.
“He could sing anything, but everything sounded like a mariachi voice,” Guerrido said. “We would laugh and laugh. Singing brings joy and it was a sharing experience. That’s just how Julio was.”
Ramirez is survived by his wife Julie, two sons Juan and Isaac, siblings Claudia, Guillermo and Luis, and his parents, Esperanza and Julio.
“He was the true meaning of what a gentleman is,” said Murillo
As posted in the LA Times – Lives Lost in California