Thomas Alan Westra

Tom's Celebration of Life will be livestreamed here: https://vimeo.com/919839520

His tribute video may be viewed here: https://www.tributeslides.com/tributes/show/9HGBD3GB9RNS4BPX

“Keep it short and sweet,” he said. “No bragging, no listing everything or everyone. Just keep it simple.”

So I said, “Not everybody knows you were a Fargo Firefighter for 32 years. Or that you loved to go catfishing on the Red River. And that you probably put more miles tooling around on your Harley than your trusty old Jeep. Or that hanging out for happy hour at Sidestreet was like clockwork.”

“Everybody knows that!” he said.

And then I said, “ Do you think everybody knows you did most of the cooking at our house? And a lot for the FFD crew? Or that you made award-winning chili? Or that you could fix almost anything, weld almost anything, and answer lots of Jeopardy questions?

I added, “They might not know that you were glued to the TV for NFL seasons (cuz, you know, Sidestreet Pick the Pros), baseball season, and NASCAR.”

“I doubt if they care about that stuff,” he said.

So, I said, “A lot of people probably don’t know that our first date was our 10-year high school reunion in 1985. And we tied the knot at the Courthouse five years later in November 1990. And we’ve had lots of furry feline family members in our 33-plus years. I doubt anybody knows you were the best cat dad. And Cali and I are really going to miss you.”

“That might be too much information,” he said. “But if it makes you happy…”

"Memorials preferred to Cats Cradle Shelter , Homeward Animal Shelter , Sanford Hospice House or your favorite charity."