The Absent Uncle: Just a reminder ...

Over the weeks prior to Christmas we had unpacked some of the Christmas decorations we had not used since our move to Houston. Opening those boxes unpacked some memories that were warm and treasured. I guess that is why we keep saving those things inside the boxes. 

One tree decoration was from a fellow that I had just lost track of. Until a decoration that he had made especially for our tree for the 1992 tree trimming get together was unboxed and placed on this year’s tree, I had not thought about him. 

Tom was the brother of my business partner. He came to work for the company and over a brief period of time he and I became good friends outside of our day-to-day working relationship.

The partnership between Tom’s brother and myself was a stable growing business, however, we as business partners found ourselves struggling, disagreeing on decisions, direction, and ultimately, I left the company dissolving the partnership under less than cordial terms. (As a note; the company continued to grow under my ex-partner’s leadership and is highly successful to this day!) 

Almost like a marriage divorce, we separated under the terms of our partnership agreement, but one of the unwritten results of that separation was the loss of contact with Tom. After all, he was an employee and his brother now the sole owner of the company. 

I certainly respected that brother relationship Tom had with my now ex-business partner, and since we moved from the area as well, contact just faded away.

So, seeing that ornament and remembering Tom I did what any person can do today – I googled him. Because of his somewhat common name I had to add more information to my search and then sift through at least two google pages until I stumbled on to an entry that seemed to relate to the person I was looking for.

Unfortunately, it was an obituary. I read it carefully and with certainty knew it was the “Tom” I was looking for. It was well written and brought me up to date with his life’s events after our unfortunate business casualty forced separation. 

The obituary indicated to me that he had a good life, was loved and respected by his family and peers. He was a couple of years younger than me and passed away from natural causes two years ago.

It was a friendship lost for reasons that now seem so trivial. Just a reminder …