Help the Herrin Family

They say only the good die young. And up until this point, it was a mere song lyric. On October 30, 2021, while preparing to celebrate the life of another family member, Thomas Herrin, 34 years old, unexpectedly passed away.

Left behind in this wake of tragedy is his wife, Taron, and their three boys: Matthew (13), Waylen (6), and Wyatt (9 months). Thomas and Taron were absolute soulmates. As cliché as that may be, these two were inseparable. In their 8 years and 4 months of marriage, they never spent a night apart, except when Wyatt was born prematurely in January of this year, and they spent their first and only two nights apart, due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Thomas NEVER forgot to kiss Taron goodbye in the morning and again before going to sleep in the evening. Their love was one of fairytales. Thomas was absolutely the love of Taron’s life, and Taron was his. As you can imagine, this loss is catastrophic.

Thomas had gifts, gifts that can rarely be found. When a new baby was born in the family, he was always the first one that NEEDED to hold the baby. In fact, he would get so antsy if another family member was “hogging” the baby. He was a true baby whisperer and you never heard a child cry in his arms. In addition to these special set of skills, Thomas was an ace in the kitchen. His signature dish being a pound cake; over the years there were many lucky recipients to his famous pound cake. We will all certainly miss those pound cakes just as much as we will miss Thomas.

Thomas was a dedicated family man, protecting and defending his family with stoic resolve. A hero, in other words. Thomas’s favorite thing to do was anything that pleased his family. Not once did Thomas put his needs in front of his family. You would often see Thomas as “Mr. Mom” in the bullpen at Waylen’s baseball games. Thomas was his biggest fan. His truck bed is still filled with bats, gloves, and balls.

One funny story about Thomas was that a couple Christmases ago, Thomas adorned a Christmas onesie holding the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas book, and sat on his father-in-law’s lap and said, “read me a bedtime story, Big Daddy.” We all still chuckle at that memory.

Many hearts are shattered as we all try to wrap our minds around Thomas Herrin’s unexpected passing. Due to the nature of his death, Taron is faced with financial uncertainty. The costs of death and passing are not just found in the emotions and the loss of the physical person. We are asking for financial assistance to help Taron and their three boys with the loss of her forever partner in life, his funeral expenses, medical costs, the upcoming holiday expenses, and for the boys’ future educational expenses. We humbly request your support in helping to lighten their load as they travel onward through grief, pain, and sorrow.

To the boys, he was “Diddy”, to the rest of us, he was one of the greatest men to walk this earth. His loss will never be fully grieved.