I just got the news yesterday. Had I heard that Tom had died?       No.      I hadn’t heard that.

That’s the kind of news that flips a switch….it silences everything in the room. It stills the beating of my heart so that I may hear his music once again, uninterrupted. Why have I waited so long? How did this happen? More….WHY…did he have to go?  We weren’t quite ready…not yet.

As our days morph into nights, our lives culminate to crescendo…and slowly turn in the glory of it all…sounds and sights and smells and the tangible feels of a life well lived. And in the blink of light we’re off to discover what lives and waits for us all on the other side all that is familiar.

He leaves behind an entire lifetime of music and of sharing and kindness. He leaves a wife and family that he adored. He leaves behind a small town in Indiana, where everyone that ever knew him is now standing in silent wonder…no matter where we now live. And we are all taken back to where we knew him as a playful friend that wore the smile of someone who had a secret.

I knew him best when he played in Magi…but we went back WAY farther than that. I watched him from afar after he left Indiana behind. I delighted in the pictures of the world that he’d share with all of us. A hometown “boy” that chased his dreams…or maybe his dreams chased him. I’ll never know…but either way…he was living. And he was living loud.

It’s tragic from where I sit, and my heart is hurting. I will never forget him. I’m thankful that his music will live forever. There is comfort in that. I’m sorry that I didn’t take the time to reach out and really talk to him about life and travel and music and everything that filled him up…I guess I always thought there’d be time for that. Our class reunion is coming up and he said he would be there. I was looking forward to that.

So, once again, a friend has gone before us and I have no doubt that he will be there to meet us when it’s our time to turn the page. Until then, I will listen to his music and try to reach out to my friends, old and new, to share the miracles in the moments of all the days that are left of our lives. None of us know the hour of our deaths…I want to make sure that I do the living part in a way that will make my dying day a well-deserved rest.

Thank-you, Tom, for the memories and thank-you for the music. You were a kind and gentle soul. We shall meet again, and until then…you will live in all that knew and loved you for as long as we live.