A farewell party at a Cherry Hill home, with a cigar roller on the terrace

In June 2025 a family in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, gave a farewell party at their home and asked him to roll. Cars filled the circular drive around a stone fountain, and the lamps were coming on at the columned front door as the evening came down.

His table went out on the stone terrace, behind a white balustrade, framed by orange curtains, with teal velvet chairs set out for the guests. The cloth carried his own crest, To’ Makao’s, with the line “Mi Casa Es Su Casa,” and on top were the boxes, the press, the stacked molds and a framed card for anyone who wanted him at their own party.

Up close it was the same work he brings to a ballroom: the leaf cut on the round board with the chaveta, rolled by hand and set in the press, one cigar at a time, a few feet from the people waiting for theirs.