Tom Dundee has come into my thoughts so many times over this last month. TR Ritchie emailed me the night of his accident and I remember grabbing my guitar and singing something for Tom right then. It seemed to be the best way to pray for him. I sat that night, feeling Tom, remembering the times we'd shared the stage back in the 80s, times since then when we'd taken long walks and Tom had told me of his latest adventures. There are few people who have inspired as many re-tellings of a story as Tom Dundee. His real life experiences were just so magical and outlandish and charming and insane that you couldn't help but tell a friend or two.

If he was incarnate back then, I'd swear Tom might have been Davy Crockett. He was that kind of traveling storyteller/adventurer/ambassador. There was the time he woke up from sleeping at a roadside rest stop in his car, when a group of runners came up the road. It was a marathon and half-marathon being run. All Tom had were the cowboy boots he had on. He decided instantly to run along, thinking he'd laugh a bit, then turn around and come back. But he started enjoying it and thinking, "Hey, I could maybe complete this thing!" So he ran a half-marathon in his cowboy boots. As if that itself weren't enough to stun any listener, then he added, "What amazed me was that I had this calcium deposit on my heel that hurt like hell. Man, by the end of that run it had completely disappeared!"

The night before Tom's passing I sat after I sang for him and tried to feel him. I asked that my own spirit touch his and comfort him, listen to him, whatever happens when two souls really connect. What I felt was so beautiful. Tom was laughing. He was not in the least unhappy. Tom was happy about where he was in that very moment. I got the strongest feeling that he was off on another of his adventures.

I'm not saying this to be upbeat and optimistic about what goes on after we pass on. I'm just sharing what I felt from Tom that night. I thought if it hadn't occurred to you, that you might like to know.

Michael Tomlinson - Seattle, WA