Tommy

Hello family and friends, I apologize for not having written in several weeks.  Since the time my stepdad passed, which was on April 14th, 2015, for those don't know.  It hasn't been busy, but my family has really been my top priority.  Sometimes, it feels like in only a few months, you can live an entire lifetime.  My stepbrother Clay Hester and his wife Helen got married on Saturday, March 29th, 2015.  They are great people and Helen, right after Tommy passed wrote an amazing tribute about Tommy, that thankfully she said at some point would be fine for me to share on my blog.  There is nothing more that I could add that would make what she wrote better, so I won't.  Personally, I believe she needs to start her own blog based on this tribute.  Who knows.  If you read closely, even though you may have never met Tommy, you will get to read the kind of man he was and the impact he had on his family, and the community he lived in.


Thanks to Helen Hester for writing what is below:

My first conversation with Tommy Hester took place when I was a baby lawyer, just starting out at Inglesby Falligant in 2007. The conversation was supposed to be all business, as he was then with The Coastal Bank. But, in true Tommy Hester fashion, he began inquiring about my background. He was most concerned with whether or not I owned a gun. When I assured him that I not only owned a gun, but also knew how to use it, he said, "well, I've got a son you should meet." Little did either of us know at that time that some six years later I would not only come to meet the sweet and wonderful son that you see in this picture, but I would marry him just three short weeks ago. Many great things have been said in the last few days, but I would be remis if I didn't give my own small tribute to the man that I have come to dearly love. A man that took myself and my sister-in-law, Jessica, in as his own daughters, a man that loved his grandchildren before they were even born, a man that had a smile that could stop you dead in your tracks and turn your whole day around, and a man that loved his two sons and wife unconditionally. While we will never be able to fill the void, I know that Clay, Wes, Jess and I will instill in the next generation of Hester's what Tommy taught each of us: to laugh even when the circumstances seem impossible, to smile in a way that lights up each room that they will enter, to love with all their hearts, to have the kind of faith and optimism that ministers to other people, to give great big hugs and to make a difference in their communities, just as he did. What a comfort to know that we will have the world's greatest father and grandfather/babysitter smiling down on us always.


Thanks For Reading and God Bless,

Patrick Mastrianni