Thomas Matthew Johnson

Thomas Matthew Johnson, 34, was an abundance. He cared for and about everything – and every one. He bent the laws of time and space and logic to his will to wring the most out of every day. He laughed quick and deep.

Tom fought to build a more just and kind world. As an advocate for social justice and organizer for progressive causes. As a galvanizing Field Director for the Mckayla Wilkes congressional campaign. As a nurturing example of brave recovery to an AA community that he cherished. As the President of the Hollywood Elementary School PTA. As a faithful husband and father and brother and son and friend. He gave himself, constantly, in ways large and small.

With all the good Tom brought into the world, he was most proud of being Adelaide and Elijah’s father. They were the loves of his life.

To know Tom was to witness your own limitations surpassed. He was himself always, without fear, compromise, or calculation. He was partial because he couldn’t remove himself, or operate at a safely ironic distance. He struggled to find work because he couldn’t bear to see anyone exploited. He refused to take anything for himself that wasn’t also given to everybody. He was good for no more complex reason than because he believed in goodness. Fair because he believed in fairness. Generous because he believed in generosity.

The world often forces us to accept what’s wrong in order to survive and flourish, but Tom stayed right. He simply didn’t have any other way to exist.

He was all in, all at once, all the time. And when that burden became too much for even him to bear, he took his own life. He leaves behind a legacy of compassion embodied in two children: Adelaide and Elijah, both of whom he loved with the same open and boundless energy he brought to everything else he ever did.

Our grief is commensurate with Tom’s capacity, his joy, his pain, and his love. He showed us the immense size of all of it. What we feel now is not a lack, but an availability. That wouldn’t be possible without him. His final words to a devastated family and community requested forgiveness – for him, for ourselves, and for each other. May we all find the strength to give and receive it.

The family will host a virtual memorial service on Friday, July 24th at 8pm, with details available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/938484149907253/). In lieu of flowers, please contribute in Tom’s honor to the Washington, D.C. chapter of Black Lives Matter (https://www.gofundme.com/f/tom-johnson-in-memoriam-donations-for-blm-dc), a movement that will carry his memory forward into the lives of people who need it.