Philip Robert Cafarella

Uncle Phil, was often known as "Unkie" by the youngest cousins. He had a condition of his right leg(Tuberculosis of the bone or Osteomyelitis as the result of being hit by a rock) as a youth that left him virtually crippled the rest of his life. It did not really slow him down much. He became a brilliant Pianist and Organist, with radio shows in Boston and Houlton, Maine. He taught voice and both instruments most of his life and lived modestly but well. He taught in Summer sessions at Colby College for years. His involvement in Ricker College in Houlton earned him a memorial fund for a monument which was never built. He was Organist for a long succession of churches and did the music for a number of Gilbert and Sullivan productions in Houlton. He was also a brilliant cook. There were always fights over the chicken or turkey hearts at family meals as well as an on-going competition between him and my mother over the size and number of meatballs from a pound of meat! Lung Cancer took him in his 60's.