for the holiday. Kids were riding bicycles
up and down the street.
Driving his wife’s car, he headed to Frog-
town, the neighborhood where he had
grown up. He parked, then started on a
running trail that winds by the Arroyo Seco,
where the dry riverbed meets the Los Ange-
les River. He made his way along the path
above the river, then he stopped at a bridge
near Dodger Stadium and leaped off. He
was killed on impact.A few months after Meza’s death, I went to
meet his family in South Pasadena. Faustina
greeted me at the door and welcomed me
inside, to the living room, where she had put
out chips and guacamole. Frank Meza col-
lected art, and the home is decorated with
several original paintings by Latino artists,
including one that depicts a running race
in a pastel city with Day of the Dead skele-
tons cheering on the competitors. On a large
shelf in one room were dozens of Meza’s tro-
phies. Above a pile of medals was a framed
photo of Meza running. In a corner of one
room was a large photo of Meza, beneath it
incense, several crosses, and a photo of a
saint. Beside it a wreath of red roses.
Faustina, who was wearing blue jeans
and a blue button-down shirt, has graying
hair and brown eyes. She offered me a glass
of water, and soon her son and daughter,and Francisco’s wife, Sara Tartof, joined us.
Over two hours, Meza’s family told
me dozens of stories. As a family doctor,
Frank Meza would give people free care
and make house calls. “He sutured lac-
erations right at our dining room table,”
Francisco said. “He’d make big pots of soup
to bring to his patients,” Lorena added.
They described how Meza rarely missed
his daily run and read every book on the
sport. Faustina learned, after Meza died,
that he’d been paying to support kids’ run-
ning camps. “I didn’t even know about that
until they came up and thanked me at the
funeral,” Faustina said.
Nearly 1,000 people attended his funeral,
including Antonio Villaraigosa, the former
mayor of Los Angeles, as well as several of
Meza’s former high school classmates. “All
these old men spontaneously stood up and
sang the Cathedral fight song,” Faustina said.
“All the stories were about how engaged
he was in the community,” Tartof said of
the anecdotes told at the funeral. “Which
is something that’s really being lost. Now
there are online communities.”
“What happened to him online ... ” Fran-
cisco interjected.
“If what happened to Frank happenedFrank Meza’s family:
his daughter, Lorena;
wife, Faustina; and
son, Francisco. “He
was a man of integrity,”
Faustina says.