November 11th is Sunday this year. Our parish's 10:30 Mass in the hall will pray for Thomas. A number of people have told us they will be there so I think we'll have lunch afterwards.

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February brought Thomas's Fort Lewis possessions back to us. A moving van came with his clothes and his television set, as well as some books. The television is enormous--I think he bought it to play video games--and we are still using it in our family room. There was a sticky ring on top from a beer or soda can and one day I found myself just putting my cheek down on this ring, trying to feel close to Thomas (who was a bit of a slob in some ways). The man who delivered these things told me he hated this duty, which I could understand. In deference to him, I tried to not cry while he was there, with mixed success.

The one thing that we had been looking for was Thomas's laptop, hoping that he might have left some of his poetry on it, or any writing at all. But, the computer was not there. I don't remember if we asked David's parents whether they could ask David if he knew where the laptop might be, but in any case we ended up believing that he must have left it with David's things (which turned out to be true). So, more waiting.