CMSGT (RET) TOM DAILEY

I was born in the summer of 1945 to overly lenient but caring parents. From an early age I was pretty much allowed to do what I wanted. This included wondering the country side of Taiwan on my own at twelve and being told on my sixteenth birthday that I was old enough to do as I pleased as long as I called and let them know if I was not coming home. Luckily, also at an early age, I realized that I always had a Presence with me that guided me away from doing overly dangerous things or things bad enough to impact my future. Always mindful of this Presence, I have managed to stay on, or come back to, the path I needed to follow so my life would turn out the way it was meant to be. Looking back, when I strayed from the path I was meant to follow I always got to experience the consequences of not doing it right the first time but the opportunity to get it right kept popping up.

During my junior year of High School (1961) I was expelled at the end of the first quarter for skipping school. I always thought school was boring so it did not bother me at the time and I really did not care if I ever went back. In June of 1962 a friend and I went to Seattle for what was going to be a three week vacation. I stayed for three months. In late August 1962 I woke up one morning and announced, to my surprise, that I had to go home because school was going to start. It was one of those times that I just knew my future depended on me going home. It took two weeks after school started to talk them into letting me back in. When I was escorted to my first class and the vice principle was introducing me to the teacher, I was looking around the class and saw, for the first time, the girl that would be my wife for 32 years (Mary DesChane). We started going steady three weeks after our first date and married in October 1964. Mary died of cancer in January 1997. We had two children Scott and Dana (husband Josh) and a granddaughter Maura. Because of Mary’s belief in my capabilities and her persistence I actually did graduate from Richland High School in 1963. It took me both sessions of summer school to make up the credits I had lost. I went into the Air Force two weeks after getting my diploma. I stayed in for 23 years and retired as a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) in 1986. After retiring from the Air Force I was able to use my experience in both material and maintenance management to secure a position with Con Agra’s Lamb Weston Plant in Pasco. I retired in 2011 after spending 24 years wondering how people could get so wrapped around the pole over French fries.

Life after Mary’s death was very hard for me but again I was sent on the path I was meant to take. One Friday night in late March 1997, when my best friend went to Texas to visit family, I went out alone, something I never did, and meet the woman who would become my second wife, Sharon (Thomas) Terry. Sharon would have normally been at work on a Friday night but there we both were. We danced several times and I asked if I could buy her and her friend breakfast after the band finished playing, she said yes but then she stood me up. The next time we talked she agreed to meet me for lunch the following week and this time she did show up for. It was an interesting courtship, I was a man who had been married all of his adult life and she was a lady that had been single for almost 20 years. We were married in September 1998. Her grown children, daughters Debra and Leslie and her son, Keith and four grandchildren (Alicia, Nick, Kenny and Kelley) all accepted me into their families from the very beginning of our relationship. We have added two more grandchildren since we first meet (Ashlynn and A.J.). Some of my best memories are introducing Sharon to fishing for salmon and steelhead on the Columbia River. The best was watching her face when she hooked and landed her first salmon (just over 23 pounds). After that her first steelhead was kind of a letdown, it was only around 12 pounds. Yes, it was a very good second time around.

Sharon passed in 2018. After she passed, I met my across the street neighbor Janice (who had also just lost her spouse). Our two small dogs, and us, became inseparable as we bonded over grief and healing. Naturally, being a good Catholic, we decided to get married before we moved in together and shared a house and a life. We married Jan 25, 2020 in Cor de lane, Idaho and called all the kids afterwards to tell them we married. We moved into her house across the street, where Janice took care of me after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s two years later. After battling with the disease that took my mind from me, and those I loved, I went to be with my Lord and Savior on Nov. 25. 2025.

My life, now over, was good and full. I left with memories of both happy and sad times and only a few regrets. I have one last request of my friends, both current and past; if you have not yet accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as I have, please consider it. I would really like to see you again when your time comes.