I wanted to express my gratitude to your newspaper for putting my brother’s picture in the paper (“Take Your Acorn on Vacation,” Jan. 1). His name was Benjie Hernandez, and he was standing next to his friend Charlie Hyde.

My brother passed away Oct. 15 after a long, hard struggle; he fought hard but in the end it was too much. I kept looking through the Acorn to see if his picture was there, even when he was in the hospital.

My brother was born with a curvature of the spine, and the doctors at that time told my parents to go make funeral arrangements because he was not going to live.

When he was still little they put a full-body cast on him, and he crawled on his elbows; then the doctors said that he was not going to make it to his teenage years.

But when my brother was taken into Simi Valley Hospital for the first time on April 11, 2009, he started his fight to live and on April 13 he turned 58. He outlived even the doctor who brought him into this world.

My parents raised him to be himself; they never treated him any differently than us, so in turn we never treated him different, and this was the same for family and friends.

My brother was a good man, one with faults, but very much respected by his brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and friends and family. He was like a father figure to so many.

Losing him has been a very hard blow to all of us, including my mom and his wife, Shane. The only thing that really helps is knowing that he is with our dad and my son, and he is no longer in pain.

We know he has a smile on his face, especially after seeing the picture in your paper. Thank you once again for printing it in the Acorn .
Lucy Hernandez Montoya
Simi Valley