Tom Townsend’s eldest son, Alex, died on Valentine’s Day 2010, aged 21, in a single-car late-night accident. Since the day of Alex’s death Tom sent daily emails to himself in an effort to remember every moment and his every reaction as the days, weeks, and months unfolded in the tragedy’s aftermath. About a year and a half after Alex’s death, Tom pulled together all the daily emails and self-published them in the form of a hardcover book, appropriately entitled with a phrase Tom wrote in one of his email entries: In This I Will Find Beauty.

I met Tom in 2015. He was a beautiful spirit. We had lots in common and became fast friends. One day, while sharing family stories and recognizing a kindred spirit, he gave me a copy of the book. I was blown away and recognized that the title alone is a stunningly powerful and useful mantra. I knew it would make an extraordinary audiobook especially if Tom would narrate it. He loved the idea and we started making plans to produce the audio edition. Unfortunately, life got in the way. Tom died in September 2019 after a brief struggle with cancer and a heroic one-year battle seeking to recover from a terrible gunshot wound to his face suffered at the hands of a car-jacker. After Tom’s death, his widow, Jeanne, agreed that we should continue with the project and try to get Tom’s thoughts out to as wide an audience as possible. I can only hope that my narration captures some small measure of Tom’s enormous passion, intelligence, humor, grace and love. If not, I’m confident Tom will forgive me.