Picking Up the Pieces After a Friend Has Left: Tom Bradbury

Please bear with me, as this is my first time doing this in writing. Unfortunately, this is not my first eulogy. Nor is it my first for one someone that has made such a large impact on my life in such a short time. I’ve spent most of my day trying to write this and finding it hard to piece together the words. I’ve been lurking, but not as active as normal in the Vocal community today. This is because we have lost one of our most beloved creators.

Yesterday seemed like any other day. Then I took a little time to check in on Facebook, something I mainly use to keep up with distant friends, see funny posts from some of the groups I’m in, and lately more and more to read the stories my fellow creators publish on Vocal. But today wasn’t going to be a day of celebrating a fellow author’s achievements. There it was, staring me in the face. The first few lines of text from a post by Lesley, “Dearest friends, I'm sure some of you have heard the rumor.” My heart sank and I braced for bad news, knowing another member had been having health issues. But I was not prepared for opening that post.

Opening that post, and learning that one of the most beloved fellow creators had passed was devastating. One may ask, how devastated can you be over someone that you barely knew for two months, and had never met in person. Well, friends, you have to understand the impact Tom has had on our little community. He was the kind of person that was always there to offer up advice. He was one of the best writers I’ve ever encountered. His stories were entertaining, informative, and most importantly in a community of writers; they made you strive to be a better writer.

You see, Tom Bradbury, known as Tom Brad here on Vocal, has been one of my biggest inspirations since joining The Vocal Creators Lounge. I joined Vocal, as Tom notes in his article TELL Tales, as many did during the Little Black Book Challenge. I did this, as I’m sure was the motivation for many, because I was feeling a little down on my luck and twenty grand was something that I felt could turn my life around. My graduate program had recently dropped me, and I was looking for a win. That didn’t happen. And after not faring well in the contest, I didn’t publish anything on Vocal for another three months. Until another contest came up in my email. I entered this one too, and much to my chagrin, this one did not go well either. However, this time, this failure led to something wonderful. What was this something wonderful? It was The Vocal Creators Lounge. And this is where I met Tom.

It was much of what Tom does that inspired me to change my outlook on Vocal. Through the comments section, reading his posts, seeing what he was doing, and messaging, Tom was telling me how to use Vocal, and why we write. That is to write for yourself. Tell your story, whether it’s a serious fictional spy-thriller, a silly poem that you can’t remember why you wrote it, your niche area of study, or a story about someone else’s work you enjoy. Write for your enjoyment, and the reads will come. But most importantly, tell your story because you are part of the community. Or as the Plato quote on Tom's Vocal profile says, “Those who tell the stories rule society.”

While we mourn the loss of Tom, I find it beautiful that we had the opportunity to connect with him in the way we did. I feel that we, as readers, often connect deeply with authors through their works. However, the bond we have made with Tom is far deeper, because we had the opportunity to connect with him in near real-time. And that is an emotional bond that is far deeper than connecting to an author from a century ago or who lives behind a layer of celebrity so thick, they may as well be a figment of our imagination.

We’ve all been knocked off of our emotional bicycles. But we will all find our way back on them in our own time.

Life is precious. Life is short. Write your story, because you’re the only one that can tell it.