I never would have guessed it, but with Tom's crisis we have seen a community stand up.

And, in some respects, grow up.

Here are the cranes, and some other memorabilia, left outside his shop door. We also saw myriad newspaper tributes, several hundred people at a benefit concert Saturday night in his memory, messages of condolence on signs outside of businesses. Today at the funeral they played Irish tunes and the hipsters wept.

From Tom we learned that it is not necessary to be self-aggrandizing, or drive an expensive car, or make a lot of money to make a difference. We learned that the first rule of good business is to never make fun of the customer (he was possibly the only person in town who did not laugh at me for liking the Counting Crows). We learned that it is possible to do just what you want to do, and be kind and generous, and earn the love and respect of a generation or two.