Thomas: A Memoir
'Thomas died at 2.30 a.m. on the 16th March 2004. He was eighteen.
How do I know that? Strictly speaking, I don't. I don't know what death is.'

This was the last challenge. But Thomas, disabled, paralysed and epileptic, faced challenge after challenge with a childlike innocence and love of happiness. Joke or tragedy, how did he see his life? How can we understand someone who seems so different to ourselves?

This memoir by his father, which follows his life in all its stages up to his death, covers a range of themes from toys to discrimination, from education to care in the family, but shows in trying to understand disability we need to understand ourselves more. If we are to be truly human we need to let go of our assumptions about life and look beyond the wheelchair and the intravenous drip and see the world as Thomas may have done. It is not just the facts but the experience that this books offers, uncosy, direct and intense. It focuses on the world of a small boy full of humour and songs and through him raises issues about life and death, justice, the nature of personality, culture and language.

This may be Thomas' story but it reaches out to other disabled people and their lives and their families, and to those who have no experience at all of disability. No one, as Donne wrote in his sermon, is an island, unto himself; Thomas is the bell that rings true for all of us. He is that overlooked and bypassed reality that once seen and grasped changes our view of the world. He died in March 2004 but here he lives: Breathe, Thomas, breathe.
1116969574
Thomas: A Memoir
'Thomas died at 2.30 a.m. on the 16th March 2004. He was eighteen.
How do I know that? Strictly speaking, I don't. I don't know what death is.'

This was the last challenge. But Thomas, disabled, paralysed and epileptic, faced challenge after challenge with a childlike innocence and love of happiness. Joke or tragedy, how did he see his life? How can we understand someone who seems so different to ourselves?

This memoir by his father, which follows his life in all its stages up to his death, covers a range of themes from toys to discrimination, from education to care in the family, but shows in trying to understand disability we need to understand ourselves more. If we are to be truly human we need to let go of our assumptions about life and look beyond the wheelchair and the intravenous drip and see the world as Thomas may have done. It is not just the facts but the experience that this books offers, uncosy, direct and intense. It focuses on the world of a small boy full of humour and songs and through him raises issues about life and death, justice, the nature of personality, culture and language.

This may be Thomas' story but it reaches out to other disabled people and their lives and their families, and to those who have no experience at all of disability. No one, as Donne wrote in his sermon, is an island, unto himself; Thomas is the bell that rings true for all of us. He is that overlooked and bypassed reality that once seen and grasped changes our view of the world. He died in March 2004 but here he lives: Breathe, Thomas, breathe.
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Thomas: A Memoir

Thomas: A Memoir

by Terry Falconer
Thomas: A Memoir

Thomas: A Memoir

by Terry Falconer

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Overview

'Thomas died at 2.30 a.m. on the 16th March 2004. He was eighteen.
How do I know that? Strictly speaking, I don't. I don't know what death is.'

This was the last challenge. But Thomas, disabled, paralysed and epileptic, faced challenge after challenge with a childlike innocence and love of happiness. Joke or tragedy, how did he see his life? How can we understand someone who seems so different to ourselves?

This memoir by his father, which follows his life in all its stages up to his death, covers a range of themes from toys to discrimination, from education to care in the family, but shows in trying to understand disability we need to understand ourselves more. If we are to be truly human we need to let go of our assumptions about life and look beyond the wheelchair and the intravenous drip and see the world as Thomas may have done. It is not just the facts but the experience that this books offers, uncosy, direct and intense. It focuses on the world of a small boy full of humour and songs and through him raises issues about life and death, justice, the nature of personality, culture and language.

This may be Thomas' story but it reaches out to other disabled people and their lives and their families, and to those who have no experience at all of disability. No one, as Donne wrote in his sermon, is an island, unto himself; Thomas is the bell that rings true for all of us. He is that overlooked and bypassed reality that once seen and grasped changes our view of the world. He died in March 2004 but here he lives: Breathe, Thomas, breathe.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781783012060
Publisher: eBookPartnership.com
Publication date: 09/09/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Terry Falconer has been a carer ever since his son Thomas was born in 1985; more recently he has begun caring for his daughter and wife who also have disabilities, mental and physical. So he has had long and varied experience of disability. Barely a year has gone by when he has not spent days, weeks or months visiting hospitals. His home has been extensively adapted for different disabilities. He was born in Surrey and attended several universities, finishing off with a PhD on Christopher Isherwood. He has had various jobs, mostly teaching but also running an art gallery and managing A level English qualifications for one of the major exam boards. He is married and had two children. Recently retired, he has devoted himself to quietly filling in the gaps that he missed out on first time around. His memoir on Thomas was written in the years immediately following Thomas’ death. Medical issues and the demands of caring are ever changing, but there is a core emotional impact and a demand they make upon one that always remain.
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