The Impact of Loss

Friday night my wife was coming home after holding a Bunco event to raise money for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life when she received a call informing her that we had lost our friend, Sal Caffarello. Sal had been in a car accident days prior, was in the hospital recovering, then suddenly collapsed and passed. Sal was the lead singer and bass player for a great local blues band called Honeyboy Dupree & The Smokehouse Players. (www.honeyboydupree.com) To those who were lucky enough to call him friend, however, Sal was so much more. Sal was a big man, but he had to be to contain his heart, which was as big as anyone I know. It seemed fitting that the last time we saw him, less than a week before he left us, he was buying a ticket for the Bunco fund raiser. Not for him, mind you, but in his typical words "so someone who can't afford it can go." This was Sal in a nutshell. He was a kind soul who cared more about others than he ever did himself. In a world that so often looks for ways to divide, Sal saw past superficial categorizations and saw brothers and sisters.

Soon his body will be laid to rest, but his spirit and impact will live on with those of us lucky enough to have been touched by this gentle giant. I have to smile knowing that he is sitting with Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and so many others that touched him musically, and knowing that they are now getting to share what we all loved in our Honeyboy. We mourn not for his passing as much as for our loss. Rest in Peace my friend, and know that your life on this earth, tragically shortened as it was, made a difference.