My first recollection of Joe was the image you see to the left. "Hey you dirty dog" he would announce early in the morning with a gruff radio voice. That was one of his many Joe-isums. But, yes that's Joe in his boxers coming out to bring his kids to the bus stop, which was at the end of my driveway. Armed with a cup of java and a cheep cigar. This is how our relationship started, Joe was a unique individual and his personality just made you want to like him actually love him. We all called him the mayor of Pacific street and that easily carried beyond to Love Lane and to all of Mattituck. Joe did not have a full time job because he was on disability, he had a stroke and almost died. His recovery was tremendous but it left him with short term memory loss and some other issues that kept him from running his construction company. Mostly Joe was normal and could function on that level and we became good friends. Our families grew together and soon we started doing more things together. Joe loved parties and they were never small. Why you ask? Joe would invite everybody, the guy in the mail room, all his kids friend's parents would be invited. Joe was a people person, he would make friends with the guy walking down the street... "HEY WE'RE HAVING A PARTY TONIGHT WHY DON'T YOU STOP BY". Poor Janet (Joe's wife who would do most of the cooking and work to prepare) would never know how many people would show up. So Janet would just prepare for lot's of people, she loved it and was a very good host and cook too. Beyond the epic parties, Joe was always around, most of the time I knew him he was working on his house. When ever I was home he seem to just show up ("like a bad penny" another Joe-isum) I would turn around and Joe was standing there, he took great delight in scaring me or trying to scare me. We always seemed to have a good time together and some of the best times I remember with Joe was just sitting outside my backyard or his backyard having coffee together and talking. Soon I learned he had Hepatitis C and would need some kind of treatment for it. The treatment was almost as bad as chemo but Joe handled it like a trouper. That was the same year we went to Disney together. Both our families drove down to Florida together and stayed in their time share. We had a blast, but Joe was reacting to the treatment and couldn't always come with us so he stayed behind on some of the days he was tired. In spite of that it was a trip to remember. The trip was in March and by that summer he was doing much better and he was put on a list for a liver transplant. The parties continued and we also took ballroom dancing. We also came up with a themed movie night and the first one was "Rocky Horror Picture Show" There's Joe on the right side of me. We had a blast. 
Then the news came, Joe went in for a check up for his "Hep C" and the Doctor found he had Cancer in his liver. I thought "Not again" At this point Joe was only 53 years old, he can't have Cancer. The worst of it all he was taken off the transplant list. Joe didn't skip a beat, it didn't seem to get him down. He got thorough the "Hep C" treatment, he was ready to treat the Cancer. They put him on a new type of treatment and at first it was iffy, but he rallied back and was his regular self. It didn't even seem like he had anything wrong with him. It was almost Spring and a very nice day, I was working and I felt the need to call Joe: "Hey buddy, how you feeling?" "Not great"
"Would you like me to pick up some lunch?" "Sure". He didn't sound good, We sat down outside like we usually did on a nice day and just talked, talked about what was happening we talked about his faith, his kids, his life, all that mattered to him. I get teary eyed thinking about that day because it was the last time we just sat down together and did what we usually do; hang out. I'll never forget that day. Two weeks later I had to say goodbye to my buddy Joe C. Cancer has hit really close to me and my family, at least with the Relay for life I can feel like I'm fighting back. Thank you all for supporting us with you donations and well wishes. I do hope we can help find a cure for Cancer, it really sucks! and I hate it. You can find my donation page at: Rory's donation page.
I hope to see you at the Realy for life our Team is called "Hope's Angles" God bless you all.
Rory
PS I save this chair for Joe and for me when I need to sit down and have a good conversation with him.
