I've been trying to figure out the best way to sum up the impact Mr. Ray Cortese had on my life in the short time I knew him, and I'm finding it to be tremendously difficult. So please bear with me while I ramble on for a while, and talk about a man who deserves to be remembered.
I had only known Ray about a month when I was invited to be a featured reader at the Red Lion Pub. He had given me access to his entire locker room when I was writing an article about the indie wrestling scene, and I sent him an e-mail to see if he'd like to come since my novel covers the same subject. He responded almost immediately, and not only agreed to attend, but also forwarded the message to his wrestling roster saying something about how they all needed to come out and support me since I had been kind enough to visit with them and take an interest in their promotion. I was completely bowled over, even more so when he showed up with his son Nick and laughed harder than anyone else at the funny parts of the story. It was encouraging to know my story was being well-received by a member of the world I was writing about, and from then on he could not say enough good things about my abilities.
I guess what strikes me is how generous it was for Ray to display such enthusiasm when hardly knew me. But that's the kind of guy he was, always welcoming new people into his life with kindness and compassion.
This doesn't do him justice, but eventually I'll put together a proper write-up.