“See, I got out of the army in ’69, so I’ve been here since October 1969. It’s still the same old Portland. Everyone gets along pretty good. There’s still a few fights, every once in a while, but it’s still Portland. I love the people here. A lot of them are straight-forward. If you gotta a problem, they’ll tell you and you get it worked out. That’s what it’s all about. 

There’s a lot of houses getting tore down and there’s a few new businesses coming. Of course, there used to be a lot of businesses here. This house here, may have been a store or something. There was a lot of mom and pops stores and restaurants and stuff. A lot of them are gone but there’s a lot more coming back and that’s good. The neighborhood needs a little more courtesy. We need people to start saying ‘hello’ or ‘how ya doing?’. All in all, this is a pretty good neighborhood. 

I had a heart attack and died and the paramedic shocked me back to life. That was the real eye opener. That happened in ’97. I had to make a lifestyle change. I quit smoking and drinking. I had to let go of a lot of things. That made a big difference.

I even talked to an angel when I was dead. I kept asking her about my wife and kids and she told me not to worry about it and that they were taken care of. She told me that there was two things that God wanted me to do. 

When I was brought back to life, I sat at home for two years and couldn’t figure out what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to do two things, not one. I kept thinking about what it was that God wanted. I sat there and watched tv and there was an evangelist on and he said, “There’s two things that God wants you to do.”. He told me to get saved and worship God. I was already saved but it blew me away. It was something so simple and I was trying to make it out to be something else. It was so simple. 

I’m happy with life. I’m very happy. I’m poor but I’m happy!

Everybody needs to listen to each other. We all got different views of things, so just listen to each other. It’s so much easier and simpler. Listen to each other because someone else might have a point.”- Richard & Bruno, Portland