Charles was the coolest and most unique person I have ever met

by Kevin Consolazio

I remember my first night at the Family School, a therapeutic boarding school I attended in upstate New York and where I first met Charles.  I was very uncomfortable on how I was sent there. My mother had just died and my dad didn’t know what to do with me.

I was skipping school and smoking weed everyday. Fortunately, I heave never used any hard drugs in my life. Charles was in my dorm and made me feel at home. He had a notebook and so did I and he asked if I wrote music and I told him I did it for fun.

Then he asked me to show it to him. I had written something about my mom and it hit him. He looked at me and said something that made me feel safe to be around him.

He was the coolest and most unique person I have ever met.

I even asked him to try out for the baseball team in Hancock and he didn’t think he would make it but I always encouraged him like he did to me and he made it. I always used to warm up with him before the games before he left the school for a couple days.

The day I found out about his suicide really hit me. He had so much going for him in music and I know that was his go-to when he was feeling down.

His music gives me hope that one day I can accomplish my goals and get him recognized for saving my life and others because I can say he has saved me. He loved playing 3 on 3 basketball as well at the school he was always putting a smile on other peoples faces and still is.

Sometimes it still doesn’t seem real to me that he’s gone