Gaudet was raised on Wood Avenue in Bridgeport, the second eldest of his parents' four children, all of whom were born about a year apart. His family moved to Milford when he was 10 because they say they were concerned about crime in their Bridgeport neighborhood. He attended St. Augustine School in Bridgeport and later enrolled in Bullard-Haven Technical High School, but didn't graduate. Instead, he earned his general equivalency diploma and went to work in the tree removal business.
"Tom was an absolute outdoor type. From the time he was a kid, he loved to shimmy up trees. And he got into tree surgery as a teenager," Potkay says. "He was really good at it and he loved the work."
The night before he was shot to death, Potkay says she and her brother had a heart-to-heart talk. He was feeling a bit low and they began talking about their childhood hot dog days at the school cafeteria, growing up and going to Catholic school and their hopes for their own children.
"He was reminiscing about when Natasha, his daughter, was born," Pokay says. "He was in a reflective mood about his life. And he was saying: "I'll never forget getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning just to feed her.' He took off almost an entire year just to be there for her. This is a man who loved his children."
Playing with kids came easy to Gaudet. "He was just a big kid at heart himself. If there was a snowball fight to be had with his children, he was there for it. Go-cart racing, sledding, you name it," she says. "The week after Natasha learned to walk, he had her on ice skates."
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