RICH MACLEOD: the blog

Tom.

My family and I moved into our current house when I was about 4, so roughly 15 years ago. We’ve always had this great older neighbor named Tom Johnson who lived right next to us. Every day in the summer since I can remember I’d wake up and look right out my window and there he’d be either on his deck or working in the yard. Every day playing in the backyard there he would be working in his garden, half the time he’d be giving us our balls back that we accidently threw in there. He was there in my front yard before my prom taking pictures and even made a CD of them for me. That day I asked if he would take a picture with me and I cannot say how happy I am that I did.

Last Saturday night, February 20th, I got a call from my mother telling me that he only had a few days to live.  Thursday morning I got a text while on my way to class notifying me that Tom had passed away earlier in the week. I rushed home immediately to go to the services and see him for one last time. The entire weekend I’ve been on this emotional roller coaster. I’ve tried to not think about it but after years of him always being there and just suddenly gone… it’s hard to forget.  Every day when I was home I’d sit at the desk in my bedroom and just stare out where I had seen him a countless number of times over my life. But instead of seeing my smiling neighbor sitting at his desk waving over to me I just stared at an empty, snow covered deck.

He was more than just a neighbor, he was practically a member of my family. He was always there with a smile on his face no matter what and now home and the rest of my life isn’t the same without him. Tom Johnson was a great man, one of the best I’ve ever met in my life and it was a privilege to have been his neighbor for the last 15 years. Rest In Peace.