By Wobblin-Goblin:


      Our community lost one of its best members last week. Tim Jackson (TimJ) was the living, breathing embodiment of a conservative gun guy. Many people here at this site could attest to that. He was moderator of the Rhode Island sub forum and a longtime member who I shared a join date with. He was knowledgeable, proficient, and good natured unlike some of us who remain, including myself.

      Covid got him. That damn virus took him from his family, took him from you, and took him from me.

      Tim was my friend. I don't like using the word "was," so I'm going to switch it up and say Tim IS my friend. He deserves that. He earned it. He is easily the best friend I have made through this site and that's all on him. He earned my respect and trust the old-fashioned way, as I expect he did with quite a few people here, especially those of us from the northeast.

      From the very first time he invited me to a rifle match 20 years ago to the last time he was over my house in December all he did was show me what it meant to be a true friend. I trusted him so implicitly, in 2015 after I had a heart attack, I asked him to help take care of my affairs if I died. His answer was swift.

      In fact, it's absolutely ironic that I'm writing to you guys about Tim's passing, because I fully expected it would be him to inform the site of my eventual death.

      Two years ago we moved into a new house that we had built right on the RI border. Tim's visits became more frequent and almost every time we'd end up in a small room I had that was part workshop and part man cave. We had a couple chairs set up in it and we'd sit and talk, we'd go over gear, we'd clean guns, and we'd just shoot the breeze. Sometimes my brother would come over if he knew Tim was here and the three of us would hang out.

      Shortly after Thanksgiving my brother got the virus. We kept waiting for him to get better but instead it got worse and worse. Eventually he wound up in the covid ward at UMass Memorial and it wasn't looking good. Tim listened to me as I tried to come to grips with possibly losing my brother to this thing. He was sad right along with me.and he celebrated with me when my brother recovered and came home in time for Christmas.

      On January 2, Tim texted me to say he had bronchitis and couldn't make it out to our place for a bit. A week later he said, "pretty sure we all have covid. whole house is sick." Even then I had no idea of the real danger he was in. I responded, "You let me know if there's anything I can do for you, you hear? Food, whatever."

      A couple days later I checked on him again and he texted, "still coughing. feverish."

      On January 12, he texted me, "I'm in the er. could use prayers."


     The last text I sent to him that he responded to was, "If you can have visitors I can pop in." He replied, "I wish. locked down hard here."

     That was the last time I communicated with him. Just days later I would receive a phone call from his son telling me his dad died.

     Before I wrap this up I want to say one more thing: I really, really hope that Tim considered me as much of a friend as I did him. He knocked it out of the park and while I'm still reeling from all this, I'm also thankful for all the years I had with him.

                                                              Tim Jackson. He IS the best of us.

                                                                               

Zero-tolerance for any smartass remarks in this thread; please be civil.

Dammit.