IN MEMORIAM: BORIS ROMANOWSKY
"Always Carry the Black Bag"
After a long, valiant fight, Boris departed this earthly plane two mornings ago.
Last time I saw Boris, early this year, we shot the breeze for nearly an hour at an open-air table outside Pierre LaFond’s in Montecito’s upper village.
Boris, that afternoon, was a few hours shy of catching a flight home to Blaine in Washington state, where he had chosen to live after many decades in Southern California.
At this chance encounter, Boris enthralled me with tales about Point Roberts, where the FBI places many of the members of their Federal Witness Protection Program, not far from Blaine. That’s because, he explained, you have to drive into Canada to reach Point Roberts—and then cross back again into the USA through a U.S. Immigration & Customs post.
Boris offered to tour me around the area for a column I hoped to write. Sadly, such an adventure did not come to fruition.
A top-notch investigator and raconteur, Boris, who’d enjoyed a colorful career in law enforcement, wanted to join me in Las Vegas earlier this month for a convention on artificial intelligence. He would have cracked the code better than anyone.
But his health took a turn for the worse and Boris stopped treatment, choosing to live his final days close to his two daughters in Ventura.
Let's hope something comes of the Boris based TV series that his associates are pitching. The pilot script was fun! Very much like his real life, but toned down for the sake of believability.
Seriously, we have lost a powerful and friendly force of Nature, with a hint Coyote/Trickster in the mix.