When Tom first migrated from the Cambridge area (I think it was an apartment in Arlington, specifically) to Portsmouth, he asked me to manage the move. After he and I got to the destination in Portsmouth, he called a bunch of friends to help unload the truck, and I left to fetch a round of coffee. Unbeknownst to me, he told his gathered buds that a crazy guy was about to show up and say, "Okay, girls, time to get to work!"
I showed up with the coffee and walked up the steps to the porch where the gang was hanging. I shouted, "Okay, girls, time to get to work!" Everybody but me had a good laugh, and then I had a real belly laugh when they explained what was so funny.
Actually, I helped him with a few moves, so I'm not sure if that happened on that particular one, but what I'm sure of is that almost every time I was around Tom, there was some kind of magic joy in the air. Almost all the time, Tom and doldrums were like Superman and Clark Kent. It seemed that I never ran into doldrums when Tom was there. What a swell friend to have.
Any time he and Dan asked me to paint some of their carpentry, I jumped on it. Working around them was more fun than work. I spoke with Dan a number of times this winter, saying stuff like "Oh, let's plan a ride together to visit Tom." Too late...
I guess it was just some kind of coincidence, but when I got my first digital camera in 2002 —a 1.3 megapixel Samsung, so the pics aren't great— I went to see Tom and took a few snaps. Last week I went through all my digital photos and posted every one that I could find that included Tom. I'm not a good photographer, but I hope that some of them will bring happy memories to others, like they do for me.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13OkT_vuAEQsjyciGQ7w6c85tN_GqneMA
Dammit, Tom, dammit. Okay, you left stylin'; I'll give you that. Wow, doing what you love with family. But, dammit, Tom, much too early. Love ya.