A Salute to Chaloux

A Salute to Chaloux

By Joe Romano

     Tim Chaloux was not a kid that you knew or that you met, he was a kid who you were lucky enough to experience, because that’s what it was to know Tim, an experience. He was simply put the kind of person who everyone should strive to be like, he was a person impossible to dislike. Tim was the best friend that anyone could have had which is why just about everyone who ever hung out with the kid would probably say he was their best friend, and that’s not to say he wasn’t actually their best friend. Tim’s character was just like that, even if he didn’t really know you just the way he would act around all people would make anyone consider Tim their best friend, because Tim was more genuine than anyone else I have ever met and probably ever will meet. Though I first met him when I was about four or five years old I didn’t really get to experience him until the fifth grade when we first became close friends. That whole year there were probably three days that Tim, Anthony Angelesco, and I didn’t spend together. Right away I could see that Tim was different from most people that I knew in a great way.

        Everyone who met him could see just how genuine Tim was  wouldn’t ever change himself to fit a certain group; the group would change to fit him, because everyone just wanted to be around him, and he would just make people feel comfortable enough to always be themselves around him because he was always himself. This allowed Tim to affect the lives of just about everyone ever lucky enough to speak to him. He changed lives, and I can attest to that personally because I know my life has been changed for being fortunate enough to have had him as a part of my life. Every time I had a problem for years he would be the first person I turned to, he is still making a difference in my life even though he’s gone. Just to share one example is my taste in music, he broadened my horizons by introducing me artists to like Pink Floyd, J Cole, and Citizen Cope. He knew I didn’t like rap and he got me to listen to J Cole who makes what has become some of my favorite music. 

     Tim was just that kind of person he knew what people would like better than they did. Or maybe it was just the fact that he would always force people to have a good time around him that made people like whatever he suggested and laugh at whatever he said. I remember one time when we were in the fifth grade Anthony Angelesco and I were over his house and we were playing “basement baseball” (we’d try to hit a little ball with pillows and run around his basement), and Tim was by far the best at this game he could rip the ball off of his wall on the other side of the room which believe me is a feat for an eleven year old. And Tim was at bat when his babysitter’s son walked right in the balls way and it hit the kid across the head. After his babysitter took him away we started cracking up, but Tim felt bad and we went upstairs and he was able to get the kid from crying and being mad at Tim to laughing at him and thinking he was the man again in less than five minutes.

      No one ever had a bad time around Tim, he could get anyone to have a good time around him he was the life of the party, the center of attention, and the funniest person in the room all without having to make an effort for it or even really caring if he was or wasn’t as long as he was around his friends. He brought out the best in people and only showed the best of himself at all times. At baseball games he was never the kind of guy who would taunt the other team or insult them he was a guy who would rally the team behind him and get everyone pumped up by just cheering on his teammates or through the love he held for the game that came through every time he stepped on to the field or spoke about baseball. I think that he’s the reason that I love baseball the way I do today and I can still remember him talking about how awesome my 8^th birthday where I took a bunch of my friends to Fenway Park was, about how cool it was that we actually got to go into the Green Monster. Every time I had an extra ticket to the Sox I would always call Tim because I knew with him we’d be able to start a “Let’s go Red Sox” chant, a “Here we Go Ortiz”, or a “Yankees Suck” chant even wehn they weren’t playing the Yankees.

     The reason Tim was able to do these things and make people come out of their shells was undoubtedly because of the incredible confidence he had. Every decision Tim made and every action he took he was confident in. He wasn’t cocky or a show off he was simply sure of himself. Anyone could see this confidence when Tim spoke because he was never afraid to share his opinion or make a joke (even if it was entirely inappropriate to make a joke. This confidence inspired the people around him including myself. He helped alleviate me of a lot of self doubt and without him I probably wouldn’t be nearly as confident as I am today or as happy as I was a few days ago before I found out about what happened to Tim.

     Tim radiated this confidence and it could be seen through his natural tendency as a risk taker. But this was not a bad thing at all, Tim just knew when people would really care about what he did and he knew what would and wouldn’t be a big deal. This is just the way he was and I’m extremely happy for that because some of the best times of my life were with Tim whether he was convincing me to sneak out of my house at 1 a.m. to meet up with him or serving “pit time” together on the western trip (and there was a lot of that) or if we decided to play it safe and go to our friend Anthony’s house to play half-ball.

     His confidence also allowed him to make friends everywhere he went and create new networks of friends like it was nothing. But Tim was not one to keep his friend groups apart he always wanted everyone to be around each other enjoying each others company. Tim would never exclude people, he strove to make people like each other and helped to teach me to hold off judging people right off the bat and can accurately say that Tim is the reason that I was able to make friends throughout middle and high school, without Tim’s influence I would have substantially less friends and be much less happy with life in general. As Tim’s brother Chris put it “He was the glue that held our family together”, but Tim wasn’t just the glue for his family he was the glue that held his friends together, he was always the one who called everyone up to hang out, he was the go to guy for anything and everything. He was always just the kind of person who other people gravitate towards and for Tim even animals gravitated towards him. At one sleep over at the Angelesco’s house their family cat was acting very strangely and just seemed to hang around Tim all night, by the end of the night she had had kittens…on top of Tim. While this was hilarious when it happened it just shows how comfortable Tim could make people, and apparently cats, feel around him.

     I’ve always thought of Tim as a kind of brother as I’m sure many of his friends did but having seen his family I can tell you that their relationship with Tim ran far deeper than any he could have had with other people. It’s evident that Tim was far from average in just about everything that he did and his family is no exception. Anyone who sees his family will be able to see how much Tim’s life impacted theirs. And Tim is undoubtedly the one person outside of my family who has most influenced my life and I expect it to stay that way for the rest of my life, which makes you wonder what kind of impact he could have had on his Mother, Father, Brother and Sister who saw him almost every day of his life, it is unimaginable the loss that the entire Chaloux family must be feeling now.

     There is no way I can really express through words the impact that Tim has had on my life and again I’m sure the lives of many others as well. I cannot begin to express how thankful I am to have experienced Tim Chaloux and had him as a part of my life. Tim was just the best type of person that anyone could have known; genuine, smart, funny, caring, charismatic, and the best friend that I have ever known the world will never truly know what it lost out on when Tim Chaloux was taken from his family and friends too soon. But Tim wouldn’t have wanted anyone to cry because of him, he spent his whole life making people smile and laugh, so let’s honor Tim and laugh for him. Hopefully though you do know what the world was robbed of by Tim’s death, I hope that you had the opportunity to experience Tim, because there is no one else like Tim and that’s what it was to know Tim Chaloux…an experience.

     "I'm gonna change the world I just don't know how yet."

                                                                      ---Tim Chaloux

You already did and just didn't know it. Rest in peace.