My wife and I used to watch the old ABC TV show ‘The Middle”. It was the story of a middle-class Indiana family with three quirky kids. In some ways, it could have been the story of my wife’s family, a middle-class Indiana family with three kids.
One of my favorite episodes was when the dad, Mike, had to do a eulogy for his father. Of course, he kept procrastinating and was continually nagged by his wife, Frankie, to get it done. When it finally was time to speak, the always soft-spoken Mike delivered a fantastic story about his father’s life.
The point of his story regards the tombstone. On the marker, it always mentions the date of birth and death, which we separate by a dash. The dash is the most essential part of that stone because the dash symbolizes everything in between. It encompasses every bit of their life.
Yesterday would have been my father-in-law Thom Brown’s 83rd birthday. But instead of celebrating his birth, today we’re in Indiana celebrating the dash. He passed away on August 19th. We all have mixed feelings about his passing. Shortly after the death of my mother-in-law Nancy back in 2019, Thom was officially diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. We believe he’d been suffering for a few years, but Nancy never wanted to burden us with worrying about his health. Doctors were late in their diagnosis because he never exhibited the tremors most Parkinson’s sufferers show as the first symptom.
With the passing of his wife, the Parkinson’s diagnosis, and the COVID-19 shutdown, Thom quickly became a shell of the man we once knew. But there is so much more to ‘the dash.’ Thom was a career radio broadcaster. Early in his career, he worked for the legendary Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting), which included time at a few well-known stations, including WOWO, Ft Wayne, WIND, Chicago, and two stints at the iconic KDKA in Pittsburgh. But after just a few years of moving up within the company, Thom gave up running the company fast track. He opted to move home to Northern Indiana to manage radio stations in his hometown of Rensselaer and then in nearby Lafayette, where he spent over two decades working at radio stations including WAZY, WEZV, WGLM, WKOA, and WASK.
While radio was essential to Thom’s life, it was a distant second to family. For Thom, the family was everything! Unlike most radio people (myself included) who are very extroverted, Thom was extremely quiet and reserved and relished his family time. He lived for the holidays, especially Christmas, and was always the taste tester for the Thanksgiving dressing. He loved his bacon extra crispy and never turned down an ice-cold beer.
For all of us, that dash between October 13, 1940, and August 19, 2023, represents a well-lived life. Godspeed, Thom Brown. We’ll take it from here…
Music:
David Fesliyan “Goodbye, My Friend”
Music used from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com