A few years ago, a crowd of nearly 600 guests at the Riviera Hotel gathered for our annual reunion of the Cauliflower Alley Club. It was the 37th consecutive year that our group had met and the second year that we were at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas.

Legendary names in our business like Lou Thesz, Killer Kowalski, Stu Hart, Fritz Von Goering, Angelo Savoldi, Harley Race, The Destroyer, Penny Banner, Ida Mae Martinez, Danny Hodge, Larry Hennig, and the list could go on seemingly forever, were in attendance.

It was the other side of our family that we gathered with on this special weekend. We gave thanks together for the friendships we had and honored the memories of those of our family that had passed on during the year since our last reunion. We hugged, we cried, we told stories, and, most of all, we remembered the good times that all of us had together on the roads of life.

It was during the time just before our banquet that I went around the room with one of the programs from the event. I had asked special friends to do me a favor and sign the program for a very sick young man named Jimmy that was bedridden with terminal cancer.

Not one person that I asked to help denied me. It seems like no matter what their ring persona was, no matter how big a star they were or what their own personal problems were ... they all gave of themselves. Some even got a little teary eyed when I told them what I was doing. Some went into their own personal collection of pictures that they had carried to Las Vegas to remember their time in the business and gave me pictures and autographed them for him as well.

I enjoyed the banquet to its fullest extent and savored the memories that it gave to me. I said my partings to all my friends, and then, I was gone back to my suite to get ready for the trip back home the next day.

Packing the bags for a return is always a hard thing for me as I try and recall all the good times each trip gives me and wonder if it will be the last time I will get together with some. I barely get enough time to lay my head down and rest before the return flight home.

The CAC has given me a new lease on life. Each get together, I meet with people that I had fond memories of. Each year, I pray that I will have the health to attend this great event. Each year, I am amazed by the turnout it is getting. We have doubled in size in just four years, and it is due to good people like you that attend.

Returning home, I went to the hospital where the young man lay in his bed. His father and mother were seated beside the bed in kind of a daze as they were trying to cope with this huge problem that was in front of them.

I opened my briefcase, as I had done a few times before when I visited with my "Little Friend," and told him that I had been to Las Vegas, Nevada, and that I brought a special present back to him. This brave little guy who had been on his back for more than six months got real big-eyed and held his hands out as I handed him the envelope that had the program and pictures in it.

As he opened it, he suddenly pulled himself up to one arm and sat up in bed with his mouth wide open. He started shouting to his parents ... "LOOK MA ... LOOK DAD … LOOK WHO SIGNED MY BOOK," and he began to read the names. "Look DAD ... HARLEY RACE signed my book. Look Ma ... Penny Banner signed my book. Look Ma, Moon Dog Moretti signed my book. Look Dad, Danny Hodge signed my book," and on and on he went for nearly an hour.

The little man was so excited every time he turned the page and saw another name in his book signed by the best friends I have. He was so proud of the pictures that he wanted them put up on the wall next to his bed so that he could see them all the time he was awake.

The little guy shook my hand as I was about to leave to return home and told me how much these autographs and pictures meant to him. He had been a big fan of wrestling and watched it all he could and read books that his dad brought him.

He told his dad and me that, when the Angel comes to get him and take him to Heaven, he wanted these things to go with him. That's when I had to turn away and go outside the room. The tears were flowing like Niagara Falls down my cheeks.

The little guy's father followed me outside and told me how much he appreciated my act of kindness. I merely told him that it was my other family that was responsive to their son ... I was only the guy that carried out the project. We both hugged and shook hands.

A few weeks later, I got a call on my cell phone that the young man had passed away. The family asked that I attend the funeral, which was three days later. As I entered the room where the little guy lay in state, I looked, and inside the silk lined casket were the CAC Program and the pictures that made his day.

Thank you to all the members of the CAC that signed the program and gave of yourself freely to help someone out less fortunate than yourself. You are the real angels in this story.

Rest in Peace, Jimmy.

Percival A. Friend, Retired
The Epitome of Wrestling Managers