Sadly, it was not to be, but we gained an interesting and active member to the forum thereby.
Today I received word that Tom Parker (at the ripe old age of only 40!!!) passed away in his sleep.
I never met him, but we had an interesting communication for quite a while as he recovered from his motorcycle accident and improved upon his knotting skills while recuperating.
Here’s the text of Emma’s email to me:
Dear Frayedknot Arts
It is with great regret that I am writing to inform you of Tom’s untimely death on Friday, 17th April at the age of 40. Tom was on holiday in Spain with his whole family and died peacefully in his sleep during a siesta. His cause of death is as yet unknown. He had finally made a great recovery from his motorbike accident 21 months ago and was out and about with only a cane and a carbon fibre foot support. As I think you could glean from his postings, he was a very colourful character and he will be very much missed.
I wasn’t sure who I should contact at the IGKT but perhaps you could be kind and pass this note along to the appropriate people?
With thanks for your kindnesses and assistance regarding his “new” knot. It meant a lot to him.
Best regards,
Emma
I for one will miss his humour and rather askance view of the world and have replied expressing the sense of the Guild as to our regret at his passing, to which I’m sure all can ascribe.
I wonder if it would be appropriate to have an article in the next KM promoting ‘Toms Knot’ and a small story based on the three pages of posts from the above link.
Even though as Dan says, this knot has been described before, as it has not been named, is there any problem with us claiming it as Toms Knot in his memory?
I join others in offering condolences for Tom’s untimely passing.
As the one (known so far) who has knotted one of those knots prior to Tom,
I’ll file no lawsuit or protest; the idea is fine. (And, after all, I didn’t have the
strong claim to the single (red rope) version.)
I’m shocked and very, VERY saddened to hear this news.
Tom and I exchanged a few private messages when it transpired we had much in common. We shared an interest in motorcycling for one, and during our “electronic exchanges” it became obvious that we shared a similar sense of humour too.
Knotting seemed to inspire him during recovery from his accident.
Tom was very helpful to me when I was putting together a web video, and he seemed proud (but not as proud as me) that he managed to follow some of my instructions.
My sincere condolences to Emma - Tom was a guy I would have loved to have met.
