R.I.P. TOM

I lost one of my dearest and oldest friends this past week. My last gift to him was a black twenty sided die his girlfriend had asked for to put with his remains.

Old school D20 , I filled it in just before the service

His Obituary:

  Thomas Joseph Niles III
Dover, NH, Thomas Joseph Niles III, 47, of Hill Street died at Wentworth Douglass Hospital on Monday July 27, 2015.

Tom on recent trip with his lady

Born May 29, 1968 in Melrose, MA, the son of Thomas J. and Mildred A. (Montecalvo) Niles Jr. He was a graduate of Tewksbury Memorial High School, class of 1986. He most recently was working for Taylor Egg Products, Inc., and a long term member of the Tewksbury/Wilmington Elks Lodge, where he was a Trustee.

In his life, Tom was a craft beer enthusiast and loved trying strange and unique microbrews. A self-appointed foodie, he was always looking for new restaurants in the seacoast area and could describe the food he sampled with the passion of a chef. He was a football fanatic, indulging in every football game he could watch during the season, and sharing in many of those good times with his brother Scott; always finding time to adamantly defend, cheer on or Monday morning quarter back his beloved New England Patriots. He had a passion for heavy metal music that spanned his entire lifetime and when Tom was listening to metal, everyone was listening to metal, as it should be. His greatest passion in life was what he liked to call his “inner circle”, his granddaughter Sydnie, his “ladies” (his mom, Chris, Meghan and Marci), his beloved family, and his close friends. Tom was unforgettable once you met him. His happiness and love was contagious to all with whom he came in contact. Tom’s favorite quote was from JR Tolkien and it described how he lived his life, “Not all who wander are lost.”

He is survived by his mother Mildred of Tewksbury, beloved girlfriend Christen Curran of Dover and her children, Daniel and Meghan of Dover, daughter Kaitlynn Niles of PA; adored granddaughter Sydnie of Tewksbury; brother Scott Niles and his wife Barbara of Billerica, MA and their children; sister Marci Niles of South Boston, MA; many cousins, aunts and uncles and countless friends.

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A year or so ago playing with my son's hulk hands.

I first met Tom in Junior High after moving into the town our parents still call home, we weren't close friends then but he was one of those people you couldn't help but know.

As we got into high school we started to hangout now and again but still were not great friends.
One day in shop class he was teasing me and I told him he better apologize or I was going to beat the hell out of him or get the hell beat out of myself trying and I'd keep coming back until he apologized or killed me; he laughed and begrudgingly apologized and we became real friends after that. 

In our early twenties we both got engaged to women who jilted us prior to our weddings and we were there for each other to deal with that. Lots of mystery shows, bad movies, and beer let me get to know him better.

Despite his posturing as a tough guy he was an even bigger nerd than I being much more into nerdish activities, he was a regular in my D&D games for decades and dragged me along to do live action roleplayig at NERO for a spell (It wasn't a hard sell I'd already been doing some boffer-weapon fighting over the years) .  By odd circumstance my wife and he frequented the same freeform-RPG chat board many years ago before she and I ever met.

My wedding a few years back, that's Tom behind my left shoulder.

He became family over the years and a great friend to my brother and he hung out with my father as well. He was "uncle Tom" to my kids and he was best man at my second wedding. My life has been better for having known him all those years.

Tom, my dad, and I at a friend's barbecue