Remembering Teo: A Life of Love and Joy

Hello everyone, this is the cruz family and if any of you ever had the extreme privilege of meeting Teo, it's likely that you already know who we are, and us you. Teo had this amazing ability to make anyone he met feel like family. An immediate best friend. His heart stretched so far and wide and the impact that he had and still continues to have amazes us in the most beautiful ways. He brought people together. His hugs were legendary. His laugh was extremely contagious. He was genuinely one of a kind. The love he had for us and his friends and very often even strangers was so deep and real. There aren't enough words to describe him in his entirety because he truly transcended earthly comprehension. He was beautiful. In all the ways someone can be and in all the ways you'd only expect to find in the heavens. Losing him will forever be the greatest loss and heartbreak we will ever have to endure. And there are no words for that either. Our lives shattered when his heart stopped and honestly, the world should have stopped too. We didn't just lose him, we lost the futures we thought we had. The time we were promised. It seems almost cruel to continue on when he no longer can. We know though, just as everyone who knew him does that he would not want that. He would want us to dance in the sunshine and revel in the wind. He would not only want us to continue on but to do it with everything we have. He wasn't afraid to live. He went after the beauty in life with no restraint and he saw the beauty in everything. He traveled to the places he loved and explored the unknown. He jumped in rivers and oceans with no hesitation just to feel the water, to feel alive. So now we must go on. Honor him by living each and every moment to the absolute fullest. When you dance in sunlight it is him shining down on you. When you listen to music, scream out the words because he is there singing with you. When you see the stars tell them about your day because he is listening. When you experience something joyful laugh out loud till your belly hurts because he is laughing with you. His humor was unmatched and he enjoyed nothing more than laughing with the people he loved so we must give him that. There are so many places that he loved in this world and to honor his life and the way that he lived it. We will be taking him to those places and mixing him with the earth. We will be spreading his ashes in the coastal redwoods where he grew and learned, where we roasted marshmallows and stood in awe of the world. In San Francisco, the city he adored. We will dance on the beach for him, with him. A part of him will also be laid to rest with our family dog who was his greatest companion and best friend. This go fund me was created so that we are able to honor his final wishes because he would not have hesitated to do it for any of us. Any contribution is extremely helpful and deeply appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to know him and hopefully gain some inspiration for your own lives from his example. He has definitely inspired ours. The world will never be the same and the grief will never fully leave but it is worth it to have had him with us. He was magic on earth and it has truly been a privilege to love him and that love will last for lifetimes.