BUSBOY TAUGHT ALL OF US ABOUT LIFE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

He was the busboy, but no one over at Weiler's Deli in North Hills ever really believed that. Not even owner Gayle Mousis.

Jesus Plascencia-Ponce ran the place. For 17 years, he was the deli's heart and soul, its backbone, she says.

When he was run down and killed a week ago about 4 a.m. outside a bagel bakery in Van Nuys, a big part of this family deli died with him, the people who work here say.

Because the busboy was really the boss.

This small, frail 65-year-old immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, had taught them all that a smile beats a scowl every time, that brashness and rudeness were no match for humility and kindness.

His wisdom was incredible for a man who never had a day's formal education, couldn't read or write, and never learned to speak English. But it didn't matter to his co-workers or customers.

They didn't need to hear the words. The truth was written all over the busboy's face. And it was a good, honest face, full of life's wisdom, they say.

``You could be having a bad day, and Jesus would walk up to your table with a glass of water or a pot of coffee, smiling because he was so glad to see you,'' said Clark Fogg, a Weiler's regular for 12 years.

``Pretty soon, you found yourself smiling and laughing. He had this tremendous power and ability to make people just feel better.''

Like so many customers, Fogg has paused at the small memorial set up for Jesus at the front deli counter, and stuck a $20 in the bowl to help pay for his funeral.

The busboy never married or had any children of his own. He didn't have a lot of money. For the past 25 years, he has lived with the family of his best friend from Mexico, Guadalupe Santivanez and his wife, Martha, in their small Reseda home.

He was godfather to the couple's grandchildren, Emma and Eva. They haven't stopped crying for a week, Martha said Friday. The kids just can't understand how a man they loved so much could be taken from them so suddenly.

A lot of people can't. In one week, $4,000 has been stuck in that bowl on the front counter at Weiler's, Mousis says.

A powerful testament to the effect the busboy had on people - making them smile and just feel better when they saw him walking to their table with that glass of water or pot of coffee.

The bowl on the deli counter was holding their last tip for Jesus, and they were making it big.

``Customers have been coming in all week crying and bringing flowers,'' Mousis said. ``Jesus touched all their lives, and he did it with no words, just a smile and kindness.''

An additional $5,000 for burial costs has come from the city's Victims Relief Fund, and the rest, whatever it takes, will come from her, Mousis says.

She knows how lucky she was to have this humble, proud man to lean on for the past 17 years.

``I could look up at any time of the day, see him out there with the customers, and know everything was OK,'' she said Friday, as a few more customers stopped at the memorial to put a $10 or $20 in the bowl.

``He was the backbone of this restaurant. He jump-started us every day. I never had to think about what was happening here at 5 a.m. to start the day.

``I knew,'' she said. ``Jesus was bringing the bagels.''

It was bringing those bagels that got him killed a little after 4 a.m. Sept. 1, after walking out of Western Bagels bakery on Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys.

Marie E. West, 35, of Redondo Beach ran down Jesus with her car, police say, and then moments later, went inside the bakery to buy some bagels herself. Her attorney last week asked for a postponement of her arraignment on murder and hate crime charges so she could undergo psychological evaluation.

Police are treating Jesus' death as a hate crime because Western Bagel employees say West commented, ``God, I hate Latinos,'' after she ran down Jesus.

West's husband told police she suffers from a manic-depressive disorder that causes her to become confrontational at times. He says it was the illness talking, not hate - that his wife is not a racist, only sick.

Either way, it's too late for the busboy. He's dead - a victim of a woman's hate or illness.

If it was hate, West could not have found a man more undeserving of her venom and bigotry. There wasn't a hateful bone in the busboy's body, the people at Weiler's say.

If it was mental illness, what was this woman doing out there on her own at 4 a.m. behind the steering wheel of a car?

Mousis, her partner Dan Klisch, cashier Julie Shippley, all the waitresses, cooks and other busboys at Weiler's have been beating themselves up for a week trying to find the answer to that one.

They have come up with one, the only one that helps them cope and make some sense of the busboy's death.

It was a loud cry to all of us, they say.

Maybe his death was meant to awaken society and the relatives of people with mental disorders that we have to take more responsibility and care in making sure something tragic like this is not allowed to happen again.

That there should be no way a sick person like this can leave their home, climb behind the steering wheel of a car, and use it as a weapon.

It's the only reason that makes any sense, Mousis says: Jesus died to be a martyr for a cause.

Now everyone knows what the employees and customers of this deli have known for the past 17 years - that there was something very wise and special about the smiling, older man who brought them water and coffee every day.

That the busboy was really the boss - the heart and soul of the place.

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Photo:

Marie West, here in court in Van Nuys, faces murder and hate crime charges in the death of busboy Jesus Plascencia-Ponce.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer