I was planning to make my NoBake cookies and visit Tom today. Too late. I can’t seem to get past it. FB has erupted with posts and pictures of him. I want to have a good cry but am not getting past the tearing up part. He was my fire chief, we ran squad calls together. He is a bit younger than me, though he appeared to age fast with the cancer. Saw him out to breakfast just a few weeks ago. Maybe 3 weeks?
His stepfather when he was a boy was a cousin to my DH. He died tragically in a highway accident while he was his stepfather. I never knew him, but I recall when he died. My inlaws went to the funeral and funeral home when it happened. Then, years later we meet and he asked me if I was related to him. After that we called him “cuz”. We are both moved here from our hometown.
My compadre and I had been friends for nearly 18 years-my co-worker had known him about that long, too. The 3 of us had worked on a job on a Friday till just after noon-as we were packing up tools, my compadre said let’s pick up subs or pitas at the deli and go to T5’s place-sit on the deck and eat our lunch, go over materials lists looking out at the river and woods-so we did, and it was a very pleasant 2 hours-before my compadre left, he hugged and thanked my co-worker and I for such a pleasant few hours-I’m almost sure he knew he would not see us again and wanted it to be a day we would remember as a happy one.
It was the last time we ever saw him, so it turned out to be an afternoon that we will treasure forever. Yesterday we both admitted that when XXX had hugged us, we were shocked by the fact that he felt like nothing but bones under his shirt, but we didn’t say anything. We both agree he definitely knew he would not last the weekend...