TOM
I met Tom in the summer of 1983. Jeana and I had just started attending Faithway Baptist Church in North Long Beach, California and Tom was one of many 20-somethings who fellowshipped there. I can’t say that Tom and I became ‘besties’ right away. My first real friend at Faithway was Steve Shanahan. One of the first conversations I had with Steve, I mentioned something about our impending move from a duplex in Bellflower to Jeana’s childhood home in Lakewood. Without missing a beat, Steve volunteered… no… INSISTED on helping us move. I remembered thinking, “Is this guy nuts? Who volunteers to help someone move that they don’t really know?” But that selfless gesture cemented my relationship to Steve and our friendship has endured all of these years. The reason I bring up Steve in my story about Tom is because those two seemed to be a package deal when I met them. If you hung out with one, you hung out with the other. And so it didn’t take long for my friendship with To...