Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: 17-year-old Who Cradled RFK's Head In Final Moments Recovers From Depression

He had cradled the dying U.S. President Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, when he had been a 17-yr-old busboy. For decades he had not been able to overcome the incident. He suffered from guilt, lying awake at nights, wondering what would have happened if the final handshake had not happened.

At last, last June this year, on his birthday, he celebrated with his family---something he has never been able to do for decades.

"I always dreaded when June was coming up," said the now 65-year-old man, according to LA Times .

Recalling the time when he had worked as a busboy after school at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, he felt proud when Kennedy, then the leading Democratic candidate, passed by his kitchen. Romero gave him his congratulations, and Kennedy's gave him his hand.

But then suddenly he was shot, and fell down.

"I wanted to protect his head from the cold concrete," Romero said.

Next day, when he went to school, he had Kennedy's dried blood under his fingernails.

"He made me feel like a regular citizen," he added, Telegraph UK reported. "He made me feel like a human being. He didn't look at my color, he didn't look at my position ... and like I tell everybody, he shook my hand. I didn't ask him."

"First he asked 'Is everybody OK?' and I told him 'Yes, everybody's OK'. And then he turned away from me and said 'Everything's going to be OK.'"

Romero placed rosary beads on Kennedy as he struggled for his life.

But later, he just decided to leave, as a number of people would come to ask to be photographed with him. Romero found that "insensitive".

He could not overcome his depression and guilt for years, and finally, he began to get cured "spiritually and emotionally," only when he started a friendship with Zwiener.

"She really wanted to see how I was doing, and to find out if she could do anything to make it easier on my conscience," Romero said as he no longer wallows in sadness, according to hngn.

"I don't carry the cross anymore."