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We take risks every day. Cars, airplanes, old maples rotting silently. All big, all unpredictable. What does it take to shake us up? "Why think about it, it will just upset me," most of us reason. "I could be struck by a car just crossing the street. Why worry? The odds are with me." Yet others are phobic, suffering agonies just stepping out the door, looking at a ladder. A pianist with a pincushion. On the evening of October 15, DACS founder and Financial SIG leader Will Toll was heading home from a meeting at the Edmund Town Hall. Crossing the road to his car, he was struck by motorist, a man just one year his junior. He was rushed to Danbury Hospital and survived the night--but Friday took this man from his life and from those who had cared for and learned from him. Will Toll was Sue Toll's husband. Sue Toll, who founded the Connecticut Dressage Association and was its first president. Sue Toll who shares annual "dig and drinks" with equine- and plant-loving friends. Sue Toll, who knows all the poop about anything CDA and all of its shakers and mover have done. Sue Toll is alive but her life is different now. The funeral home handling arrangements for the Tolls faxed me a obituary they said the family had asked them to send. It's sitting next to me, quietly, atop the pile of November dacs.docs proofs. I'm not sure why I was the recipient of this bittersweet memo that slipped silently out of my fax machine. Was it for the members of DACs or for CDA? Doesn't matter. I'll share it--and some of my own recollection--with both. The obituary traced a bit of Will's life and invited friends to attend a memorial service, which was held on Saturday morning, October 24, at the Newtown Congregational Church. The sanctuary was filled. With kin, with many friends, with those who know of him. A founding member of DACS, Will had also been a Paul Harris Fellow of the foundation and Rotary liaison to the Newtown Economic Development Commission. Unassuming, he was known as a quiet, courageous leader in his community. Will's body will be cremated and there will be no calling hours. If you wish, you may make a contribution to the Newtown Rotary Foundation, P.O. Box 263, Newtown, CT 06470-1822. |
