Joesph R. Curto 1985-2007

by Kate Severson
(West Jordan Utah Untied States)

Click on each photo to enlarge.

Sometimes the decisions we make everyday will change your life forever and mine was responding to a job add in the Salt Lake Tribune. I was just coming out of a really bad relationship and need to start over so I did the one thing that always help me get through the really rough times that was work but little did I know I was walking into what would be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I walked in the door of Mountain Top Promotions on April 7, 2006 I had just started school to achieve my associates degree in paralegal and I needed a job that would be good for my school schedule so it was a good thing; I met Joseph Curto that afternoon and I got the job and his attention.

We worked side by side for almost 3 months and he finally asked me out on a date which we both knew we might get in trouble so he made me the office manager so we could officially date without problems and we made a great team in the office and in our private relationship.

Joe was the kind of man you would only see in a fairy tale he was handsome, funny, loyal and he knew how to make people feel good he was my knight in shining armor or as he called it "retard in tinfoil" he was a goof ball like that. I had some off the best experiences in my life with Joey before I met him I never believed in "soul mates" or "love at first sight".

He was made for me, he had already asked me to marry him but he wanted to do it right so he planned with my family on Christmas morning that he would ask me then the ring the proposal everything because I was worth it. Well he started to feel crappy and wasn't himself we thought it was a cold I took him to the doctor on the 24th of December.

The doctor didn't run any tests or anything they just gave me antibiotics and an anxiety medicine for him because he had been stressed out from losing his job and asking me to marry him. I got him home and he went to bed by that time it was 7:00pm and I was hoping he would start feeling better but he wasn't there was something wrong and I knew it but he wouldn't let me take him to the hospital he fought with me so I let him go back bed.

It was 8:30pm I went over to my mom's (which was right next door) I finished wrapping Christmas gifts. I went back over the house to check on him he was on the floor I went to see if he was asleep I tried to flip him over and when I did he was blue I will never get that out of my head I immediately called EMS (911) my mom came over and we did CPR. The EMT's arrived and did what they needed to and took him to the hospital we got there 10 minutes after they were working on him they had me come in and sit at the head of the bed and try to talk to him so get him to respond. They worked on him for a long time they had to pull out, Joe was pronounced dead at 11:00pm on Christmas Eve.

I don't remember much of anything after that, we found out 3 months later that it was Diabetes that he died from we had no clue that was what was going on.

Joe had a rare skin disease called Vitiligo and the medical examiner said that it could have been a direct cause of what caused the diabetes because there wasn't anything else that would have caused it. He was completely healthy and in great shape.

It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to go through and it still is hard it has been 3 years since Joe past and I still wish that things had been done differently. If they had been done differently I would have forced him to go to the hospital and he would be here today but as far as the responding immediately I handled it the way I was supposed to my life hasn't been the same since he died and I'm not sure it ever will be ever again. Joe taught me a lot about myself and how strong I really am and he loved me for me and he always will.

He wrote me a poem that said "No one is ever truly perfect until you fall in love with them best friends are like four leaf clover hard to find even harder to keep you have made my life worth living, you are my whole life and my whole world I still can't believe that I found you. You are my true love and I want you to be my wife always and forever you are my gift and my treasure I would do it all over again if I knew that you would always be there. You my love are my blessing, people come in and out of our life all the time but there are a select few that will leave there mark and you have left footprints on my heart".

Joe was an amazing man and i miss him more than i can express he always told me that he was the one that was blessed. But the way i see it i was the one who was touched and blessed to have him in my life and it feel empty without him. I know him passing isn't my fault i just wish i had done more to save him.