I met Tom at the age of 12 when another friend brought him over for a sleep over party and introduced him. He brought a green garbage bag containing three mallard ducks he had shot as the price of admission, which my mother dutifully plucked and cleaned for a subsequent dinner. It was the beginning of a long friendship as they say.

In the years I knew him, I came to realize that Tom was, at heart, a good natured soul and possessed of formidable physical strength and talent. He was good at a lot of sports. He also seemed to have a penchant for making some bad decisions combined with some bad luck. In the years I knew him, he bought a new racing bike, and then promptly crashed it, getting a concussion and broken collarbone from the event. But he wouldn't let go of that bike. He always seemed to be getting hurt playing football. While out shooting pigeons with another classmate during our school years, he accidently took a load of birdshot in the side which nearly killed him. At one point after high school, Tom entered an amateur boxing contest, confident in his skills as a black belt, and then got thrashed by a bouncer who didn't know those moves. One year, Tom took a job in the middle east that was supposed to be fun and money and came back broke and disillusioned within a few months. We never did hear about what happened there.

Tom married twice, I went to his first wedding, which was a lovely ceremony in Kelowna, where he spent most of his later life, but unfortunately, that marriage fell apart. He married again and had two kids and that ended very badly. In the end he saved his worst mistake for his final one. We all make mistakes. Some you can't fix.

He died shortly before the 25th Reunion in 2001, and the news shocked me to the core. He was a nice guy at heart, and deserved a fuller life. I hope his kids are okay.