Howard Leighton Alfred Bandoo

I will always remember Howie as Benny's "brother from another mother" along with Charles, Berto, Luis, "Funny Face", Junior, and all the others.  You could ususally always find them together but my special memories will always be of the "Alvarado/Robles" gatherings we would enjoy at my mom's (usually a family picnic in the summer or a new year's eve party).  No one was a stranger.  Everyone was family, including Howie.  I guess that would make him my "cousin" too.  Anyway,  we miss you down here Howie but we will rejoice with you again one day.  Until then hold down the fort until we meet again! 

grace & peace,

Beth

You know what? This is pretty sad because its unexpecting.... because of the time (i mean he just got married about three days before).... just because if you really knew Uncle Howie then you would know atleast a decent percentage of his personal life story and what he's been through...The crazy thing is that in some kind of way i feel like i was really closer to him more than he thought i was just because I always felt his pain. Sometimes I would feel like I was the only family member that showed the most compassion for him because according to the family, "the old Uncle Howie", was considered the bad example of what your life may turn out to be if you continue on this "negative path" or follow "this pipe dream" but as for me i would always oppose that argument in defense for my uncle or i would just think to myself "that there must be reasons for Uncle Howies actions or experiences" and i would always come to the conclusion that thats why I think Uncle Howie and I are compatible because we were always misunderstood, we had our own ways of interpreting things. Although I feel like we are in some ways compatible, but yet we are still different  in many ways. I'm not saying that i always agreed with Uncle Howie because there would be arguements held to where i thought he was wrong, but we always got along except for when it came to the car because i was younger and always wanted to drive around and he was grown wanting to act younger...it was fun now that i look back! He always had my back if anybody had problems with me or any other family member, he'd tell me stories about him being a bounty hunter (that was interesting) i remember when he told me he used to live in atlanta he said he punched Usher and took his chain then pawned it the next day that's one of my favorites, when we used to live in athens he tried to give his son my cousin lil Dave a haircut in our bathroom turns out he gane him a bald cut because he didnt know what he was doing i was there i watched but lil dave still liked it though because it was obvoius that lil Dave always loved his dad no matter what but thats a diffrent story for my lil cousin to tell....but recently when i came across "the new Uncle Howie" it felt wierd and sad because this new him was very new to me..honestly it was very sad for me because i thought he totally lost it untill i saw him at his last wedding he was handsome she was beautiful (auntie maggie/his wife) i was so astound and that made me really realize that he was truely happy this time around ask ANYBODY!!! When i arrived he told me that I looked good, he always told me that i looked good and then he specifically said to me " you never disappoint me nephew you're always looking good"

But now what do we have? a man that had everything going the way he finally wanted as far as happiness by finding the lord and a "hot mama" as he requested from God through prayer he got right with all the family he was basically back on track but now he's  gone unexpectingly the bright side of this is that he was happy and more peaceful when God called him and now he finally got to see his younger brother again my other uncle, Uncle David, the bad part is that we all miss you uncle Howie....

I will always remember the last time i saw Howard this past August.  It was the first time I got to meet Maggie personally.  As soon as I saw him, I saw the peace and the love that he finally was yearning for his whole life that I had known him. It was probably one of the happiest days we had together.  Maggie was a little ball of fire, I saw that he finally had a woman who loved him for what he was and could put up with him.  Give it as well as dish it!  For as many memories as we had, and believe me we had a lot, this is the one that would stay in my heart forever.  Rest in peace. Love your brother Ben

i remember when my family and i used to live in athens.

uncle howie moved into the same apartment complex as us.

it was great knowing that he lived right down the street.

we could go to his house anytime we wanted to and he would love to have us there.

one time we even spent the night on a school night; me josh and david.

Sometimes he would even take us to the pool.

it was so much fun to have him around cause he always had a sense of humor and there were hardley times when i saw him mad.

i love you uncle howie and i can't believe that your gone.

r.i.p.