Happy Birthday, Cass. You're on my mind today, buddy.I met Cassidy as a skinny teenager in Ocala. I was freshly moved out of my folks place in south fl and looking for a job and the only person I knew in town was my girlfriend (now wife) and her family who didn't really like me very much. I was  a total outsider and no one would hire me as we were on the brink of a recession and I was a high school drop out who really wanted to be a rock n roll singer.I will never forget wandering into the pool supply store that Cassidy worked at (seemingly completely alone) I was like 19 maybe and he was probably about 23. We were both outsiders in town and I was immediately struck by his charisma which was off the charts and what I could only describe as his weirdly warm and honest way of being. He hired me on the spot and paid me more than I'd ever made up to that point and gave me a management position that I was most likely unqualified for, at a store where he and I were the only employees. All because we really liked talking to eachother and being around eachother.The business at the time was incredibly slow and we became very close. He made every day at work feel like a day hanging out with your best friend. He was a brilliant salesman who could sell thousands of dollars worth of equipment in his dirty sneakers and stinky uniform from last week. He of course showed me how to make a potato gun and fixed my broken glasses with a butane torch. He should have fired me when I accidentally used floor wax instead of cleaner. But he just laughed.  He would come in on days off just to hang out with me and bring me lunch. We started to spend time outside of work hanging out together at his apt where we would listen to music and talk for hours about music and jam together on guitars. He showed me some very crude recordings he had made of songs he wrote and that gave me the courage to sing some songs to him that I had written.He told me unironically and with sincerity that I was a genius and that I really had a gift worth pursuing. I thought he was pulling my leg because he was a real joker and no one had ever said that to me before outside of my brother maybe. But he was serious. He could be very humble and vulnerable. He was always extremely kind and empathetic. He was handsome. Every one who came into that store loved him. He treated me like a little brother. The only person I know who ever met him was my wife, so I don't have really anyone I can talk to about him. And our friendship predates the smart phone social media era so I don't really have any pictures or anything of us together. We used to see who could catch a bigger bug in a jar. I won when I pulled a black widow out of a customers trunk! We both essentially got canned lol. I drove Cassidy in a uhaul down to Orlando to start a new life and I drove down to Miami to start mine. We spoke via text or phone about 2 to 3 times a year mostly catching up and him letting me know that he had heard my latest music. He was always really supportive and encouraging, which is rare cause most people I've been around are adversarial. Most recently when I was having some success with music he sent me a collection of lyrics that he had written with the request that I use them in future songs. I told him I would, because he was a great writer and could be very poetic. The next and last time I heard from him after that was about how he was having health problems. I never imagined he would be gone. He's a reminder to me that I really need to appreciate the people that matter to me while they are here, cause I would love to talk to him again so he could call me "Bro-dee" haha.I'm not sorry this has gone on so long, because I miss you Cass! I wish we could have spent more time physically close rather than far apart, but I'm so grateful for you modeling to me what a vulnerable, empathetic, and selfless friend looks like. I didn't know what that looked like and it was shocking to see. I love you buddy, you helped me believe in me.

Thank you, brother.

I wish I had the words right now to describe what made Cassidy so unforgettable. We became close friends in middle school. He was the first boy to ever tell me he loved me. I didn't know what that meant at the time, but I was sure he was pulling my leg as he was very much the class clown. I remember watching his mom pull a staple out of his head once after "someone" cracked it open throwing rocks down a hill that he was rolling boulders down. I may have been one of those people and although we never knew for sure who it was that accidently hit him (because foliage blocking the view), he insisted it was me because he preferred to remember it that way. The scar it left became super noticeable in recent years as his hairline receded, and even though I still felt guilty about that, he reminded me it was the perfect metaphor for our relationship. 

Although life sent us in different directions, we always found our way back to each other. Through all the hearth breaks and disappointments, we found solace in our shared dark humor and witty banter. My fiancé died in a tragic accident in 2022 and Cassidy called me every day for a year because he didn't want to lose me "to my dark place". He was always the first one to step up and help a friend in need and the least likely to let anyone help him in return. It's hard to summarize someone you knew for 25 years but I'm grateful to have known him and that he taught me not to take things so seriously, that getting outside my comfort zone is where the growth happens, and most of all - what it means to be loved by a true friend. 

Cassidy’s presence here with us was a whirlwind of love, laughter and realism. He will always be my brother. Love you so much Cass. I very much look forward to shooting your ashes out of a potato gun.

Love, 

Hailey