Oakland couple: Friends share secret, build a life

[davidinalameda]

Brian Cornell is still in touch with his high school crush: His hand is on his shoulder.

Growing up near San Francisco's Stern Grove in a Catholic family of seven kids, Brian, now 52 and a truck driver for FedEx, has few fond memories of childhood. An unhappy loner who had trouble making friends, by the time he reached high school he was not quite a "bad boy" - but he was heading in that direction.

Through friends, he met Alberto Rulloda, now 62 but then in his 20s, a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby. Brian was drawn to him immediately, even going as far as volunteering at the VA hospital where Alberto then worked as a file clerk. "Whenever he was around, I was happy," Brian says. They spent time biking, camping and hiking.

Alberto had emigrated from the Philippines with his family in 1967. Three months later, though he wasn't yet a citizen, he had been drafted. Vietnam was brutal: He drove tanks on the front line, and as the only Asian in his troop, bore abuse from his fellow soldiers. "They called me 'gook,' " says Alberto, who still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Of course, in the service, he told no one his of homosexuality.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/07/LVAD1GUSFU.DTL#ixzz1AZ9wJwBh