Thomas

Thomas Pearson

I bump into an extremely brief ad on a job search website. The project is to build digital presence of a 22-year-old Thomas Pearson who is physically and mentally challenged. I first meet Tom's mother Nicky who drills me on why a person with my experience would like to work on such a small project with small infrequent hours. I had never thought this would come up. But by now I have some background on Tom.

When he was 9 months old he got a severe attack of meningitis which resulted his being epileptic, paralytic and deaf. Most doctors thought he would not live and even if he did, he would be a vegetable but Tom has done well for himself, thanks to the effort of his mother and care takers. He has a unique gift to pick angel (tarot) cards for people. One of the tasks is to promote this service on his website. Do I believe in card reading? I don’t know. I do not read horoscopes because I start internalising so I stay away from these sorts of things. But I am drawn to his story. I explain this to Nicky and move to round two.

One day I am called to his house for an ‘interview’.  Whether I am chosen or not depends on Tom. "Please do not take it personally", Nicky explains over a phone call adding, " Tom has to accept you". I am not sure how that is supposed to happen if he cannot communicate.

I walk into the house. He lives with three other men all of who need special care. At first I am surprised that Tom does not live with his mother. How can a person with special needs be left with others, I wonder? In a few moments, we move out of the house. It seems Tom wants to go on a drive. I sit in a SUV where the interview is supposed to take place.  Tom takes a nice look at me. Nicky tells me a thing or two about Tom while my prospective employer opens his shoes and socks and passes it to his mother. This is customary, Nicky explains. After sometime he is restless so we go inside the house and I see his room which has a small bed, wardrobe and pictures of his family stuck on the wall. Soon I am told that I have to move out of the house as another roommate of his starts screeching. This in an out makes me nervous. Did I screw up?

For the next 5 minutes Nicky and I sit in her car where Nicky explains that with Tom things are very unpredictable. Indeed! She again checks if I am interested. The whole episode lasts 20 minutes. I had driven 40 minutes to the other end of Auckland for this meeting.

In a few days I come to know that I am hired. I don’t know how this happened and what is in store but I am very excited working on Tom.

P.S: Nicky wrote two books about her experience of bringing up Tom. Later when I read those books, I suddenly notice this piece, “When Tom takes a person’s hand, he is communicating clearly that he is willing to connect with that person”. I always wondered how was I chosen for the role. I now recall Tom had taken my hand when I offered to help him move into the SUV.