A Tribute to Tommy Tom

We found out today that Tom Duddy died of a heart attack on 9-11. Tom is younger than Mark and older than me by a few years. It was quite shocking and very saddening to us. You see, Tom was one of Mark's roommates when we met. He was hilarious. A good guy and had a weird sense of humor. He was radical for Christ. We're talkin' he would fast for days on end only consuming liquids (especially coffee that was so strong I'm not sure how his coffeemaker survived). Then he'd pig out for a few days and fast for another few weeks to a month.

He always wore a blue T-shirt and jeans except for the day of the wedding. You see, Mark asked Tommy Tom, as we called him, to be best man. So then we were in shock when we saw him in a tux that day and gave him a ton of grief of how civilized he looked. I'm sure he felt very uncomfortable but he wore it for us and was nervous as all get out he'd lose the rings. It was kind of cute how serious he took his responsibility as best man.

Tommy Tom stayed up all night before our wedding praying over every inch of the property where we were married. He wanted God to be honored at our ceremony, as did we. It was a wildlife preserve and hunting lodge. The whole wedding party stayed there together. It was great to be together for those few days as a group of our closest friends. And he thought long and hard about the toast he gave at the reception. He honored us greatly and we have a picture of him with this devilish grin on his face as he was captured decorating our car before we left on our honeymoon. That was the Tommy we knew.

After we married, we didn't see Tom a whole lot. Eventually he moved away from Kansas City and we only saw him a few times after that. Mark and he spoke off and on by phone. But we were not very close after that time in KCMO.

How sad. He died so young. It's shocking. And we are saddened at the loss of someone so special to us. Granted we will see him some day and we know he is with the Lord and happier than he's ever been. But we still feel sad that he's gone and will miss him.