Rest in Peace - Dreams in Pieces

Thank you Papa, we'll miss you forever.

Hells Angels touched by a mentor - Matthew B. Stannard, SF Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Mark "Papa" Guardado, 46, was killed Sept. 2 outside a Mission District bar. At the time, he was president of the Frisco Hells Angels, royalty of the outlaw biker realm. He was shot to death, police say, by Christopher Ablett, 37, of Modesto, a member of the rival Mongols Motorcycle Club, whose bad blood with the Hells Angels goes back in history. Ablett is still being sought. But there was little talk of the Mongols as the Hells Angels gathered to remember Guardado at a vigil Sunday night and funeral Monday morning; little more than a passing, irritated reference to a Sonoma County prosecutor who had charges pending against Guardado stemming from a bar fight and who called him a dangerous gang member with an assault conviction on his record.
Instead, those gathered remembered their Guardado, the friend or surrogate father, the man who many said bought them their first Harley-Davidson - or helped them get the job they needed to buy their own."To me, and everyone that knew him, he was the epitome of Hells Angels," said Richard Goldammer, who rode from his home in British Columbia to honor the man he called his mentor."He set an example for a lot of people, being straight up, honest and respectful to everyone," he said. "People form their own opinion about our club ... we are who we are. We stand in our own social circle."
It is a circle with many intersecting rings that pulled together in Daly City for what many hailed as an event of unprecedented scale.Well over 1,000 motorcyclists gathered at Duggan's Serra Mortuary for the two-day memorial: Hells Angels chapters from Alaska to Maine, from Rhode Island to Hawaii, and from overseas - Norway, Germany, England, Australia, Italy and more. And not just Hells Angels showed up. Duggan's parking lot hosted a collection of motorcycle clubs rarely seen outside events in Hollister or Sturgis, S.D., - the Mecca and Medina of biker culture. Top Hatters and Henchmen, Vampires and Devil Dolls, representatives of large groups and small, they all slapped leather-clad shoulders and shared tears and tales of Papa Guadardo, or just exchanged stories from the road.
Overall, despite the continuous rumble of motorcycles arriving and departing, the farewell to Guardado was as quiet and thoughtful as any funeral. Police expected and reported few incidents. A few beers and flasks were raised in the assemblage, but most drank water and soda or coffee as they waited and mourned.As the vigil began Sunday evening, mourners packed the main room at Duggan's and several smaller rooms, where they watched on closed circuit television. Huge, grizzled men wept as one of their number sang Willie Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground," accompanying himself on saxophone. An emotional pastor described Guardado as a friendly, supportive man, a good son, father, uncle and godfather whose independent streak began with a runaway attempt as a 5-year-old. He described Guardado's good acts - donning a Santa hat to take gifts to children in the hospital at Christmas, or to children whose fathers were in prison; taking food left over after club events to feed the homeless. "When you do right they never remember," the pastor said. "When you do wrong they never forget."
The vigil ended with Guardado's goddaughter singing Alicia Keys' "Prelude to a Kiss." "It's a long long way to heaven But I gotta get there Can you send me an angel to guide me?" The caravan escorting Guardado's coffin to Colma's Cypress Lawn Cemetery on Monday morning went by way of San Francisco's Mission District, a river of thunder that flowed through the urban canyons for more than an hour. The caravan didn't stop for signals; it set its own speed limit. Some onlookers waved, some took pictures, some pressed hands to ears and waited for the end. And for a brief period on Interstate 280, as police halted all other freeway traffic, the mourners took over the roads. They buried Papa not too far from where former Daly City Hells Angels President Harry "The Horse" Flamburis is buried with his motorcycle. The Frisco Hells Angels and a sea of red-and-white-clad others formed a close group around Guardado's grave. A few words were spoken as a biker on the outskirts cranked Metallica's somber ode "Nothing Else Matters." The ceremony over, the Angels picked up shovels and buried their leader. Then they returned to their motorcycles and roared away.