A statue for our dearest friend Miguel

Chris Matterne is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi all, I’m Chris. We have a friend who passed away beginning November 2024 under stressful circumstances. We’ve been mourning him ever since. What started out as a joke, grew into a dream. A dream to create a statue of our dearly missed friend, Miguel Lobato Perez!

Miguel was something else. I know you often hear that and so it sounds cliché, but I mean, he really was a unique being. Although he encountered many difficulties during his life, he always was someone you could count on, someone you could look up to. A very loud person (and personality), you could tell whenever Miguel was in a room. People would often flock around him!

He would tell you things straight up, as they were, no two ways about it. Sometimes that would be tough, often it would be a blessing. He loved Spanish music and would be the only one in the place dancing, without care for people’s opinions. We loved that about him.

The weekend that Miguel died, he was at a wedding. That night, music kept being cranked up to the max. Those early morning hours, Miguel was exhausted from helping around all day, and could not sleep, as his room bordered the “disco”. In a bid to stop the music, things got heated. Hefty (homophobic) words were said. Miguel retreated to his room, the assailants followed. As they tried to beat down the door to his room, it proved too much for Miguel, and he fell to the floor.

His partner tried everything to revive him, and they eventually managed, but it took too long for the brain without oxygen.

We didn’t manage to say goodbye properly. That’s why we would like to see him forever, by making a statue of him! A statue where we can remember who he was, and what he stood for.

We, his close friends, his family, are grateful to you in advance, for taking the time to read his story, for making the effort to donate.

The ceremony will take place in Brussels, on 27 November 2024, where Miguel Lobato Perez will be cremated, and his ashes will be taken to his parents’ village in the North of Spain.