Our good friend Lloyd Chartrand has been staying with us for the past several weeks while he plots his next adventure in life. We will be leaving him, at our house, when we head off on our 3-month RV road trip in a few days.
Lloyd returned to the United States from Progreso, Mexico awhile back, following a 9-month stay down there. He got his residency card, bought a house, and had his South African girlfriend Juanita join him for six-months. Her visa expired, she hit the road and, by that time, Lloyd had seen enough of Mexico, its culture, and government. He sold the house for what he bought it for plus improvements.
Our friend is now thinking of moving to South Africa to be with Juanita. He’s familiar with the country from his days as a financial consultant; in fact, that’s where he met Juanita. Lloyd is 73 and Juanita is 59 (I believe), she is a nice and attractive lady, and being with her probably boosts his ego. One might call her Lloyd’s “arm candy”.
Our friend has been through several wives during his life and is bitter about those experiences. He has two grown daughters, of which he is estranged; neither of them called him on Fathers’ Day. I believe that he has grandchildren that he has never seen. His 92-year-old mother lives in Reno (where he is this week, visiting her) and he is estranged from is 92-year-old father.
It is a sad thing for a 73-year-old fellow to have virtually no family at this stage of life. He is a lonely guy and is lucky to have us in his life right now providing shelter and companionship while he plots his next move. We are pleased and honored to do this for him.
I consider Lloyd to be my best friend, however he is not like me at all. He is, without a doubt, the most racist individual that I’ve ever met. He despises Latinos, Blacks, and Asians, equally. He is also a virulent anti-Semite. To top it off, he is politically an arch-conservative, despising communists, liberals, and Democrats and blaming them for most of the world’s problems.
Although Lloyd is a smart guy, he is in denial about lots of things and prefers to look at everything in terms of black and white: he seems incapable of seeing the gradations between extremes or wanting to acknowledge that they exist. It’s a character flaw.
My buddy is a Vietnam vet who has PTSD issues. He regularly goes to the V.A. for treatment (medical and counseling) and has significant anger issues, particularly toward the Federal government. I think this is because of the poor treatment that our veterans receive, in his opinion, from the V.A. and also because of the rejection he felt by his fellow citizens when he returned home from the Vietnam War.
Lloyd has lived a big life. He grew up in San Francisco in the 60’s and enjoyed live performances of Janis Joplin, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and others. After the Vietnam War, he got a degree in Accounting and became a C.P.A. with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells, one of the Big Five accounting firms. Later, he became a financial consultant, traveling all over the world, advising investors, and helping businesses grow. He made a crapload of money. Later, he bought and ran (for 25 years) a Merlot wine grape ranch in the Napa Valley. Along the way, he went through several wives (I think four) and they went through his money. He still has plenty, but he has no one to share it with.
It is sad.
Lloyd exhibits a simmering resentment against California state government which, he says, stifles businesses. On the other hand, he got rich in California and the only reason that he got out of the wine grape business was because the price of Merlot grapes dropped dramatically when the “Sideways” film hit the movie screens and hip wine connoisseurs shifted their loyalty to Pinot Noir. The California state government had nothing to do with that but he blames those pesky Democrats anyway.
Like I said, there are aspects of Lloyd Chartrand that I dislike a lot and, yet, he is a cherished friend. We enjoy hiking, golfing, playing cards and table games, and bullshitting together. He and Charlie and good friends and he likes our three dogs, too. Lloyd’s a very generous person and, although he jokes a lot, he is a serious person. We talk about important news events and philosophize, to an extent, until he goes completely off the rails and starts to raise conspiracy theories. Lloyd is really into those, blaming bad thing on Jews or minorities or bureaucrats or Californians or George Soros, ad nauseam.
He wears a large, gold cross on a chain around his neck but Jesus would be embarrassed to hear him curse everyone and everything. The poor are certainly not “blessed” in Lloyd’s world: they are lazy bums who elect to collect welfare rather than work.
It is almost like he finds himself in a rage when discussing social issues, and I have to tune him out. I feel sorry for him that his cranium is so filled with anger. It must be tortuous to have to live like that, always on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum. It is no wonder he’s had difficulty in marriage and family relationships.
Charlie and I focus on the Good Lloyd that is in him and we enjoy that aspect of his being. And I think he sees in our 49-years together that a man and woman can peacefully coexist and have some fun while living together. Maybe we are teaching him some lessons that he can take with him to South Africa and try out on Juanita?
We will miss our friend when we leave for the Summer in less than a week. Unfortunately, it’s not certain that we will ever see him again once we say goodbye on the 29th. Hopefully, he will find that elusive happiness in South Africa.
We love Lloyd and we will miss him for sure.