Tom was my best friend. I moved to Rockford in middle of junior year. I felt like an outcast with my Texas accent. One day in my first week at school, when I was eating lunch by myself in the cafeteria, Tom sat down next to me and asked where I came from. After learning that I had grown up in Dallas, he told me that the Alamo was his favorite battle in history (he was a huge history and military enthusiast). He then nick-named me "Tex" and we soon became best friends. We did everything together, and I became part of his large Italian family, sharing holidays and birthdays, and all family celebrations with them. I thought of his mom and dad (schoolteacher) as my second mom and dad. I went off to Univ of Ill in Champaign and he went to Drake, but we stayed best friends. After that I moved to Chicago to start my accounting career, and he went to law school and then started his practice in Rockford. My parents were still in Rockford so every time I visited them, I would get together with Tom and go out for beers or play tennis and we stayed best friends for years. Then one day when Tom was playing baseball, he fell down when running, then after that he started losing his balance more. And it the MS was discovered. He did not think he would live long, but he fell in love with Sarah... what a beautiful, sweet girl, and a nurse. And he loved her so much and later amazingly they were able to have a beautiful daughter, Sarah. I moved back to Dallas in 1981, but we stayed in touch, but didn't get to see each other much. His condition continued to get worse, he was wheelchair bound, but he still practiced law and loved his wife and helped raise Sarah until the end. I miss him so much. He pulled me in when I was so vulnerable, and it made a huge difference in my life. I became very successful and started several consulting and IT service-related businesses. I don't think my life would have turned out as well as it did, if he had not given me friendship and confidence starting on that day in the Guilford cafeteria and continuing for years, even through his illness.