I just wanted to say a few words about a man I knew who passed away too early in his life. I knew him only by his first name, Emile. He owned and ran a NASCAR memorabilia store in Southington, CT. It was called Emile's NASCAR connection. He organized and frequently participated in bus trips to relatively local NASCAR races throughout the year. It was on one of these trips where I experienced my first live NASCAR race after following the sport for a number of years. I absolutely loved it. If you have never been you must go.

Emile was always friendly to me. I would come into the store and usually browse for quite a while. If it was not busy (as sadly happened more often than not) he would chat with me and I would talk with him for some time. Mostly he would talk about business. He was very open about his day to day operations and his struggles with suppliers, debt collectors, deadbeat customers. It was cool because I work freelance and am therefore self-employed and he treated me like a kindred spirit, entrepreneur and race fan. Even though he was a bit older than me by at least twenty years he never talked to me like a kid which I am not but some people cannot change their perspective on such things. I learned a little about the retail business through our talks which I previously knew nothing about. He had a lot of trouble with people not paying for the collectable cars he sold. He would let some customers pick up orders with just partial payments which were by his accounts rarely paid in a timely manor if at all. Many times people ordered stuff and never picked it up at all. He was such a good guy, he believed that people are essentially good and honest. His theory would be extended to all until you proved him wrong and he would be forced to change his policy. I would buy what I could afford and sometimes more than I should have, particularly if he had a sale of some kind which were few and far between. Sometimes I would wonder if he was friendly to me just because I always paid. I found out that was not the case. He was more than friendly to me. Here is one case. He would discount stuff for me a lot of the time. He didn't have to do that. I was already buying it. Even if it was not much, a couple of dollars, he would do it. It was funny because he would try to hide this from other customers who were in the store. Here is another. He would ask me about the people who had come into the store with me on previous occasions to find out how they were doing and he would tell me when my other friends had been in there and what they had talked about.

One day after a long absence I entered the store to see what was new, Emile was always moving stuff around. Making his shop better. I was greeted with a big smile and a How ya been? Haven't seen you in awhile, and a How's business?. I told him that I had not been busy and therefore had no money to spend at his shop so I had stayed away. He looked disappointed and told me that I didn't have to buy anything and that I could have stopped by anytime just to say hi. That made me feel really good and at the same time badly that I had underestimated my relationship with him. Sadly that was the last time I saw him. About fours weeks later I stopped by his shop happy I was gonna give him a big What sup! but he was not at the counter. The man who was there was speaking to a couple, something about the shop. When he turned to me I asked him where was Emile? and I thought I already knew the answer. He was in the back of course because Emile was always in the store. The man said, "Emile passed away last week. He had a heart attack". I don't mean to be dramatic but I was speechless and held myself up with the counter. I suddenly felt very weak and overcome. I felt awful for a long time. Number one, I wanted to send condolences but I didn't know any of his family and the funeral already happened. Number two I was hurt more because I didn't expect to feel so bad about something like that. After all people pass every day, right? I don't think I knew him half as well as some people but his death made me feel I had lost a very special contact, associate, a friend and this is really why I write this to you, I want to tell you that Emile was a very caring person and is sorely missed.

I want to tell you that I miss him.

Warp9 Design's Cafepress Shop is dedicated to Emile.