Since Michael is in New York, and mostly communicated to Tom through work, he was one of the dear people that I missed contacting in the blur of events right after Tom's death.
So when Michael phoned a few weeks later on Tom's business line, his happy assertive voice was so comforting, "Michael Forte here, Kitty, can I speak to Tommy?" For just that moment it felt like Tom was alive again. How nice it was to hear that bop in his voice.
It reminded me of a message I still keep on my answering machine from back in early August before Tom died. It was his brother, Mark, calling. "Hey, Tom, it's Mark," it said, with that same happy bop in the voice that Michael had. I can't delete that message. It's like holding on to Tom being alive again. There was something about Tom, that when people called him, they always had that happy tone in their voice. We all felt welcomed by him.
Don't mean to digress, but it's with that same happy tone that I wanted to just hold on for a moment before announcing the terrible news to Michael. I was so touched by Michael's response. He cried. This man that I had never met was so touched by Tom's loving friendship through the work they shared that he wept over the news of Tom's death.
I'm further moved by Michael wanting to post on Tom's blog. I hope friends and family of Tom enjoy reading what Michael has to say as much as I did. Thanks, Michael.
Michael writes...
I really am having a hard time writing this short story about a friend of mine whom I really never met in person more then once, but who grew to be maybe my 3rd or 4th best buddy, even over the hundreds of miles that were between us as it were. I don’t really want to be at the top of a blog page, since the entry by Kitty about Carla made me mist up, it should always be on top. But that’s how these blogs work. It might sound like a bad story in the start, but read it through. You’ll understand how it is just one of the millions of many stories of the great Tom.
I was called into the conference room on a rainy day at work, to meet the new web guys, as I was told. Come to think of it, rainy day was most days in Cleveland, or just wait 10 mins, as the locals would say.Little did I realize that this meeting would be the beginning of my demise in the firm, since, being hired through a friend who worked at the firm, I was a fish out of water, having moved from the big city, NY, to work for a little company in Berea, OH. I didn’t really like the city much, although it was a great place, just not my speed, so to say. Tom and his partners had great ideas, and were much more able to accomplish the design and implementation of this firms web site then I could accommodate in my position. We didn’t meet for that long, and I think Tom and company, might have gone away thinking I wasn’t too impressed with them and might not advise the firm to use them. He did, however, do a wonderful job and I hate to admit it, he had ideas, vision know-how that I just could not keep up with or even be able to have thought of, even today.
You know the old saying, You get what you pay for? Well, someone forgot to explain that one Tom, because he gave them WAY TOO much for what they paid him for, and he would not do it or have it any other way. Now that I’ve seen the DVD of Tom and his family and friends, and as I read the entries in blogs and knowing him for so long, I NOW understand, that was just how Tom was. He was just being Tom.
I left Cleveland and that company, as I said, I lost my contract and position because of a company like Tom’s, who offered an out source solution that was cheaper then keeping me in-house full time. I would much RATHER it been Tom’s company who railroaded me, at least I wouldn’t have minded him getting the job, lol.
Over those few years that I worked with Tom, he opened up to me about how the internet worked, how to make it work for you and how to play with it and actually became my teacher/mentor/friend IN the web, not just on it. He gave me some web space for my own domain, and helped me register my name. Over the years, he gave me a deal on some internet real-estate, and eventually the hosting of my single namesake domain grew to 50+ sites, and he helped me tweak and massage every one of them, and never asked for compensation, except maybe for listening to his stories about Kitty, the kids, the house, church, football, and sometimes a little geek business.
He eventually let the company in Cleveland move their site to another company, and he as well moved on to North Carolina. BUT, we still talked at least once a month if not more. He always had something to say that made me laugh, or even just his own giddy chuckle would help me crack a smile.
He told me about the kids and the party room that he puts up for them with the blinking strobe light, so, since being in the night club lighting & sound business for many years, who better to enjoy all the left over stuff I had collecting dust in my
warehouse! I still find little lights that I know the kids would get a blast out of, and UPS is only a phone call away.
I knew he loved his family and his kids, his community, his friends, his eCommerce business, his Santa suit and I knew that he loved football and coaching, because, till this day, I still use the password he created for me in my domain registration login. He would always say, think of some great passwords, just like my football plays for the kids. It had a color, a two digit number and a direction, just like a quarterback would call out. Just like green, 99, left.
I login 10-20 times a day, and each and every time, I think of Tom and his laugh. I’ll NEVER change that password!
HUT-HUT-HUT!
