Passed

  The inevitability of aging. It isn't so much about health and doing the things you used to do. It isn't even about the changing times and how the world is going crazy. No, it is about those mornings when you wake up to discover another friend or acquaintance has passed. It is those moments that give you pause, a moment to consider that inevitability. The news never strikes the same way though, sometimes it arrives as a gut punch, taking your breath away, and at others it is almost a sigh of relief. A blessing bestowed on someone suffering. It really depends upon what has "passed." 

  It happened again this very morning as I turned on my computer. I had been on a short road trip and so off of social media. This morning I turned on Facebook to be greeted with that news and a sorrow swept over me. An old friend had passed. I was aware of his medical issues and recent struggles with that. In fact, the last news I heard from him was he was in the hospital. As was his nature he was upbeat and hopeful. We exchanged a few casual words. And that is exactly the way he would have wanted that to take place. In thinking about him it occurred to me never have I known a more honest man. By honest I mean, true to his beliefs and feelings, and always expressing them unfiltered, unbiased and well, just plain honest. 

  He was born the day after myself, in the same hospital. He lived less than 2 miles from my home, we attended the same church, the same schools, the same everything. I would go to his home and do the things young boys do. I knew his story up until I left for the Navy. Following that I didn't see my old friend but a few times, those rare occasions when I went "home." He was home. I knew the girl he married as she was in our circle of friends. The years passed and I lost track. Then social media came along and we reconnected on there. It isn't the same thing. I saw some photographs, heard a few stories but really didn't know much about how life had been treating him. So, he remains in my mind as the friend I knew through the 1960's. And that is a comforting thing. He will remain as a constant and constants are a great thing, a comfort to us all. The things we can count on. You could count on Tom.

  To those that knew him or interacted with him in any way there is much that could be said. Unique is a word that could be used to describe him. That he was somehow different can't be denied. There are those that would say unkind things about him, and that was because they didn't know him. But in my mind he had an almost childlike innocence about him, he took you at your word and expected you to do the same with him. Loyalty wasn't a word for him, it was action. A good man and a true friend. In the local parlance, "of the finest kind" We say things like, I'll miss him, but as for me I won't say that, I will say I will enjoy the memory of him. He truly was an "honest" soul and I haven't found many to compare.