Readers React: An inspiring account of the busboy who helped Robert Kennedy

To the editor: What a deeply moving and phenomenal column from Steve Lopez about the life of the busboy who tended to the mortally wounded Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. (“The busboy who cradled a dying RFK has finally stepped out of the past,” Aug. 29)

I was barely 4 years old and living about a mile from the Ambassador Hotel the night of Kennedy’s assassination. Relative proximity aside, I was far removed from that horrible event. But since I share Robert Kennedy’s brother’s birthday, I have been deeply affected by both assassinations for as long as I can remember.

While it makes for fresh heartbreak to learn what Kennedy so selflessly said to Juan Romero after being shot — “Is everybody OK?”— Romero’s successful journey away from all the sorrow and regret he carried for so long can serve to heal all who continue to mourn.

William Campbell, Silver Lake

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To the editor: Thanks to Lopez for his compelling and inspiring update on Romero, the busboy who cradled Kennedy’s head.

I’m pleased to know that the weight of that tragic moment on Romero’s psyche has greatly diminished because of a German teacher of children with special needs named Claudia Zwiener, who reached out to him, recognizing a person in need of help, just as Romero saw a person in need and tried to help on that tragic night at the Ambassador Hotel 47 years ago.

That is humanity at its best.

Chris Long, Studio City

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