Friday, March 29, 2024

From the Sidelines: Tom Pidcock

I lost a good friend last month.  I met Tom and Janice Pidcock when they first came to Double Oak.  Tom was relocating to the area as an executive with The Associates.  He was elected Mayor of Double Oak in 2011 after serving almost continuously on the Town Council for nearly twenty years.  I served much of that time with Tom and got to know him well as a capable leader.

Tom was a strong man.  Lung cancer is often a death penalty.  I believed that Tom would somehow survive.  He was a fighter and fought the illness for over a year.  The cancerous lung was successfully removed but concurrent leukemia required chemotherapy again and again.

Through it all, whenever I visited we told ‘sea stories’ of our military service and Tom laughed long and hard at our shared memories.  I’ll miss him a lot.  He was a true friend and patriot.  The town will miss him as well.

There was quite a turnout at the funeral home for the viewing.  It seemed like half the town turned out.  A Double Oak policeman stood guard at the head of the casket and a Double Oak fireman guarded the foot.  Tom belonged to the Knights of Columbus and they conducted a ceremony reading the rosary.  But the highlight for me was the eulogy done by Tom’s Brother-in-Law.  It was tasteful, sad but funny and included intimate heartwarming vignettes of their family gatherings.

The funeral mass at St. Philips was also well attended by family, friends, church members and a large group from Double Oak.  It was sad but also triumphant.  It is an old Navy custom to bless you with “Fair winds and following seas.”

Sleep well, old friend.

 

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