6 Months | Tommy's Climb
On December 12, Tommy will have been gone for 6 months. Half of the year without him. My mind is having trouble wrapping itself around this these days. I just can’t. I can’t see life without him. But I know that I have to and of course I will, it’s just unimaginable right now.
On this day, I wanted to share something that holds a lot of meaning for me in this journey. There really are so many things, but on the day that Tommy died, I had reached out to one of my favorite artists, hoping to be the ‘winner’ of a piece that he had posted that day in a promo he was running. That week, I’d decided that I’d buy one piece of his for each of my boys. I love art and love finding artists whose work calls to me and this is one of those artists: Samuel Walker
On my way to my car, after that last photoshoot, I saw the piece he’d posted on instagram that day. It screamed my name. It was the perfect piece for Tommy and I was hopeful that I’d be the first to comment so that I could buy it for him.
Tommy wasn’t a climber, in the traditional sense, but in a way, those last few months were truly an uphill climb for him. I commented on the post, but wasn’t the first so knew that I wouldn’t be able to get it for Tommy. Disappointed, I continued my drive home where I tried to call Tommy on the way, but he didn’t answer.
That was the drive home that led to the collapse of everything I’d known.
While to many it may not have seemed important, I knew that I needed to reach out to the artist. He was so kind and commissioned the same piece for me so that now I have that climber that so vividly reminded me of Tommy and his battle.
It arrived a few weeks ago and I cried while I opened it. He titled it “Tommy’s Climb” on the back, which was so touching. There were quite a few things that happened that day and people that I interacted with that will forever hold a place in my heart. This painting is something that I will treasure always. I wish that I’d had the chance to give it to Tommy. To tell him how very proud I was of him for battling so hard and climbing so far.
