Friendship and Loyalty That Changes Your Life: A Tribute to Lisa Buzzelli

A personal letter about the kind of friendship and loyalty that shows up consistently, gives generously, and makes you want to be a better person just by existing.

Originally January 6. 2013

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The kind of friendship and loyalty that genuinely changes your life is rarer than most people realize — and if you are lucky enough to have it, you hold onto it with everything you have. I have been fortunate to have many remarkable friends come through my life, but Lisa Buzzelli represents a category of friendship and loyalty that stands completely apart. She is one of the most caring, thoughtful, entertaining, engaging, loving, and genuinely curious friends I have ever had the privilege of knowing, and this letter is my attempt to do justice to what she means to me.

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The Friendship and Loyalty That Started With a Vision for Charleston

I have known Lisa for what feels like forever — actually about ten years now — and from the very first time we met, I could see exactly who she was. She was managing the newly opened IMAX Theatre at Aquarium Wharf at the time, and watching her work was a lesson in what real vision and genuine friendship and loyalty to a community looks like in practice.

She led the charge in creating synergy for the entire area, approached marketing Aquarium Wharf as a destination with real strategic intelligence, and assembled one of the most talented, passionate, and creative teams I have ever seen. She thought big when smaller thinking would have been easier, and she executed with precision. Marketing a destination the way Lisa did requires both creativity and conviction — and she had both in abundance.

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How Her Friendship and Loyalty Shaped the Charleston Wine and Food Festival

When we were developing the initial concepts for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, having Lisa involved was not a question — it was an obvious necessity. She stepped in immediately as one of the original Planning Committee members and took full ownership of all marketing efforts from the start. What she taught me in those early days about creativity, resourcefulness, and collaboration and cross-promotion as tools for building something extraordinary without an unlimited budget has stayed with me in everything I have done since.

The friendship and loyalty Lisa showed in those founding years — and has continued to show in the decade since — is not something I take lightly. She remains one of the very few original volunteers still actively and deeply involved in the organization, which is exactly why she has been named, completely appropriately, the Festival’s Queen Volunteer. That title was made for her and no one else.

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The Friendship and Loyalty That Goes Far Beyond Professional Life

What makes Lisa’s friendship and loyalty so extraordinary is that it extends so far beyond any professional context. She is the person who sends a card and a thoughtful little gift for absolutely no reason other than that she was thinking of you — the Pez dispensers with custom labels, the perfectly chosen lottery tickets, the bottle of wine that arrives exactly when you need it. Research on the power of small gestures in friendship consistently shows that it is the small, consistent, unprompted acts of care that build the deepest bonds. Lisa has understood this intuitively her entire life.

She is also a genuine part of my family. When she agreed to become Chase’s godmother, she took that commitment with a seriousness that moved me completely — she remains actively present in his life, marks every holiday with a card or gift, and I am absolutely certain lights a candle for him at church every time she goes. That is the kind of friendship and loyalty that cannot be manufactured or performed. It simply is who she is.

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What Lisa’s Friendship and Loyalty Has Taught Me About Being a Better Friend

Sitting with Lisa — on a deck somewhere, or at a bar, her with a Miller Lite and me with a red wine — is one of my favorite things in the world. She asks a million questions and she means every single one. She genuinely wants to know how you are, what’s new, and how she can help. That quality of presence and curiosity in a friend is something I aspire to and something Lisa models effortlessly.

My only real regret in our professional relationship is that I never found a way to bring her onto the Festival team full-time. She would have been — and would still be — an extraordinary addition, someone who could help continue elevating the event to its full potential. The friendship and loyalty she has given as a volunteer makes me wonder what she could do with a full mandate and a full-time role.

The truth is, I try to become a better friend just by watching how Lisa does it. Her friendship and loyalty to me, to my family, to this city, and to everyone lucky enough to be in her orbit is a standard I measure myself against constantly. I am a better person for knowing her.

Here’s to friends like Lisa — may they always know exactly how extraordinary they are, Angel

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Learn more about Angel Holmes and everything she’s passionate about at sipindipity.com/angel-holmes.