Leo Melendez

I was 14 years old, about to be 15 and I wanted this Gucci watch I saw in a magazine. As a kid, I was into designer stuff and everything. I went to my father. "Absolutely not. It's too much money. You think we're rich?” he said. I remember my mother listening. She didn't say anything. But one day out of the blue, she said. "Let's go to the mall. Let's go buy something." Very discreetly, we walked into that jewelry store. She knew the watch. "Why don't you try it on?" I tried it on and she says, "I'm going to give it to you and I don't care if your father don't want to, whatever. I'm going to open an account, a line of credit, and give you that watch." To this day I always remember that watch. How she, no matter what, was going to get me that watch. To me, she is unconditional love. * I was in a coma for three weeks. On July 3rd, I woke up. The first person I saw was my mother. She was right there next to me because my mother never left my side. I remember seeing her and she started crying. "Where's Javier?" That was the first thing I asked. She didn't say anything. She just stood quiet. A nurse came, other people came. We didn't talk about Javier until the next day. I asked her again. That's when she told me. "You have to be strong. Javier is gone." ****************************************** Leo Melendez has worked at Gucci since the 1990s. He is a survivor of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting. He went to Pulse that night with a co-worker, Javier Jorge Reyes, who died. When he fully recovers, Leo wants to go back to work at Gucci. Instructions/Permissions *Interview edited and condensed for clarity *You may use an abridged or full version of interview at your discretion *Tag @dearworld on any social/digital use. We are @dearworld on Instagram/Twitter and we are at Facebook.com/dearworld *Credit Dear World/Daymon Gardner for portrait