On hearing of Pelé’s passing, it was impossible not to relive and be moved by the memory of the words and the sense of love Pelé projected when he and I shared the last two first-class seats from São Paulo to NY many years ago.
Strangers to one another, I was totally in awe of this football idol.
The driver of the bus was no less so.
In fact, it soon became evident that this bus driver wouldn’t drive us to the plane until Pelé stooped down and autographed his jacket.
Pelé graciously did it and reached into his overnight canvas case to dig out a picture to autograph for the driver’s son.
Spending much of the night talking football and so much else with this unforgettable, kind, and gentle man was one of the thrills of my life.
How could it not be?
I especially remember that when we arrived in NY, the car that was supposed to take Pelé into Manhattan failed.
I was delighted and complimented when he accepted my offer of a ride into town.
The only problem was the size of the coffin-like box that didn’t quite fit into the car’s trunk.
In it was a wooden statue by Olinda artist José Barbosa, chosen especially as a surprise Christmas gift for my wife by Victor Civita, president of Editora Abril.
Faced with the difficulty of removing the statue from its box, Pelé had imaginatively taken the crowbar from the car’s tool kit, and we were hard at work opening the package.
Imagine, Pelé mused, if the police were to discover the two of us in the airport’s parking area, standing in the lightly falling snow, crowbar in hand, breaking open a coffin-like box and unloading a half-nude female from it.
It would surely take no small amount of explaining.
Pelé did not want to take me out of my way when we got to Manhattan.
I insisted on taking him first to his destination, wherever he wanted.
It was to a bagel and Brazilian coffee purveyor who gave him the warm and welcoming abraço of an old friend and produced cafezine and toasted bagels for us.
And then, with a hearty abraço, Pelé and I parted as if we had been friends forever.
How lucky I was to have had that time with an idol.
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