VATICAN CITY – When Steven Bouchey landed in Rome over the weekend, he came with passion and a purpose.

“I came in really just for a few days specifically for this meeting with Pope Francis,” Bouchey said.

When the world heard the sad news about Pope Francis on Monday morning, that’s when Bouchey realized right away, one of his bucket list items will have to go unfulfilled.

“After the year that I’ve had, this was something I was looking forward to,” Bouchey said. “And to think that I was going to have a mass said for me tomorrow, private tour of the Vatican, and then meet Pope Francis in person on Wednesday, by far, one of the biggest bucket lists that I could ever imagine.”

Everything that had been prearranged for Bouchey, a once-in-a-lifetime moment, had instantly gone by the wayside.

“I have a friend in the Vatican who made this possible,” he said. “He knew the year that I’ve been going through, what I’ve had on my plate with everything, between losing my wife and some other treatments, so he made it possible for me to have a special time here in Rome.”

A special time now with a much different itinerary.

“I spent the afternoon in Vatican City,” he said. “People are obviously overwhelmed with grief. You have a lot of sad faces. St. Peter’s Square is packed. There’s no capacity for any more people and to be there and to have the window that Pope Francis would normally come out on right literally behind me was breathtaking in a way, and to think that he passed this morning, and what a good pope he was. He was the peoples’ pope.”

Even though things did not work out this time around for Bouchey, he remains grateful for many other blessings in his life, not the least of which was his part ownership in a horse named Keen Ice, which shocked the racing world ten summers ago, by defeating triple crown champion American Pharoah in the Travers.

“I’ve been very lucky,” Bouchey said. “To think that a kid growing up in the projects, and this is one of the reasons that I give back so much to the community and I try to do as much as I can for people in need. I just try my best to be a better person, especially with the year that I’ve had.”

Being in St. Peter’s Square at one of the most momentous moments in history, Bouchey said, is something he will never forget.