I learned of the passing of my friend Tom Wobker, the Bard of Sherman Avenue, on the first day of my recent vacation, Saturday, April 23. Fittingly, he died on the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. John Swallow, a close friend of Tom's emailed to tell me of the loss. I knew it was coming but I was still stunned. John wrote: "His mind was sharp and even though he was barely able to talk his sense of humor and wit was with him to the end.  He asked how I was doing ... and (then) said good, that I was doing better than him." From Portland, I contacted SReporter Scott Maben to report on Tom's death. Then, I contacted Tom's wife, Sharon. She responded: "In keeping with the poet that he was his breath quietly paused just at that time before dawn when the birds start singing."

As death approached, Tom and I discussed it via email. He said he wasn't afraid of death. But he was said it was coming. Also, he said he had few regrets in life, although he wished he had retired two years earlier than he did. On April 6, he wrote:

"At this point I believe I am (usually) at peace and accepting of the death process because I whole heartedly believe there is much more to life than mere physicality and because I believe that God (life force, universe, whatever people call it) is literally everywhere and that there is a reason for everything that happens but our little brains are way to feeble to grasp it. I believe in the power of prayer and good thoughts and believe these are helping greatly in my journey... which is one that every person must sooner or later take, whether as a society we want to admit that or not."

Tom asked his wife not to hold a memorial or any other sort of service for him. Again, Sharon: "We both felt the the Bard Reveal (at Blogfest 2016) was the best tribute he could have had." I'm humbled that this blog brought to much pleasure to this fine man. I plan to re-run his poems as long as I'm at the helm of Huckleberries Online. What would Huckleberries be without The Bard's sweet poetry?/DFO.