I've known TC for a while now, starting with some neighborhood baseball and basketball games we both played. I never was very close to him, but I got to know him pretty well, mainly by being his partner in Spanish class for two years. He always had something funny to say, and if it wasn't funny, it was about the Mets. A quick funny story: One day we were doing vocab about bullfights, and I asked him which page we were on and he said "the bull sheet." We were both laughing really hard, but nobody else in the class heard it--except for Ms. Throne. "That was close," she said to us. Only with Tom could something like that happen. Like everyone else, I was shocked and devistated when I heard of the accident and eventually his passing. You never think about how special a person is until they're gone, which I now realize. It's struck me how everyone has pulled together to deal with it; I'm amazed at how many people care. But it's no suprise, Tom was one of those people that was friends with everyone he ever came in contact with. Tom Ehrhart, R.I.P. You will be missed greatly.

Here is a poem I wrote:

Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why are the ones that make you smile,
The ones who early on die?
17 short years, immeasurable impact.
Tragedy strikes,
Lives forever changed.
And a boy holding his father in heaven.
Hugs and tears,
Eerie silence.
Friends having to face their fears.
A community together as one,
One life lost,
Countless lives affected.
But memories last forever.

-Dan Mandelkorn-