Pick the Right Knife or Else

Tonight I was emailing with my sister Cris. I was making a calendar for 2010 with pictures of Tom but I could not find a single picture of Tom and Cris together. I wrote Cris and asked for pictures and the only one she had was the pub roll above. (Tom upper right, Cris second row from top second from right). How in the world Tom was in my life for 20 years and he and Cris only made it in one picture together was amazing and sad.

But when I was upset about this Cris reminded me that it was the memories that count not the pictures. She shared the following story with me.

One time Tom was in the kitchen cooking. At the time I didn't really think of him as someone who enjoys this domestic duty. Actually, I'm not sure I've changed my mind since then either. Anyway, Tom needed a knife and was looking everywhere, so Theresa went over and gave him one. It was the wrong knife and Tom continued to look for "the knife." Theresa and I audibly joked about him looking so intently. This precipitated Tom going into a short and intense one-way dialog on the necessity to use the right tool for the job! I was really cracking up now because I had never ever seen anyone get a rise out of Tom and we just had. I could tell Theresa was about to bust out laughing also, so the two of us didn't dare look at each other.

It was a rare occasion to see this wonderful, even-tempered man get excited about something like the right kitchen tool. Then again, he did take his pancake-making pretty serious also. Maybe he did enjoy cooking."

Thanks Cris. Man I miss Tom.