They made it to the hospital and his dad was saved.......But life would never be the same.
The next six months would definitely be a journey. His dad was moved to a rehabilitation hospital in Cleveland and under went lots of tests. The result of the accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.
He eventually came home and life continued, but in a new way. Tom was now "the man of the house" doing all the manly duties which meant he had to grow up real fast!! Being only 15 that was quite a job. It definitely brought his family closer together. I really look up to his mom for taking such good care of the man she loved.
Tom's dad lived for five years after the accident and made the most of his life with his family. The last year of his life he was in and out of the hospital and eventually had to be put in a nursing home. His body tried so hard to be strong but in the end couldn't hold on any longer.
On Feb. 10, 2005 he was visited by all his family and was very talkative and seemed to be a good mood. As the day went on he went from being fine to not doing well at all. Tom and his brother were told to come back to the nursing home as soon as they could get there so they could spend the last moments with their father. Things were really not looking good at all but he held on just in time to see Tom one last time. Tom was able to say his goodbyes and tell his dad how much he loved him and then watched him drift on into eternity.
As Tom told me his story you could hear the pain in his voice and see it in his eyes. You could tell how much he loved his dad and wished he could have just one more conversation with him. It pains me to know I will never have the privilege to meet the man that made Tom who he is. I know we would get along so well....at least that's what Tom tells me!!!!!
After such a serious conversation we went to much lighter topics as to what we wanted our futures to look like and how he felt about his upcoming deployment. He was so excited and just couldn't wait to go.
Eventually Vanessa went to bed, Richie and Tom fell asleep in the living room and Matt and I stayed up talking outside the rest of the night and into the morning!!! It was nice to just talk with someone and not worrying about being judged!
They left that next morning with the plan of getting together soon. A couple weeks later we decided to take a beach trip so we packed up the car and headed to the great pacific! We had a great time and just goofing off. Definitely made lots of memories.
Another couple weeks had gone by and Tom's bday was approaching.
Let me clarify that we are just friends as of right now!!!!
With that said I did like him but in some of our past conversations I had found things out that didn't match me or my beliefs so even though I knew I could have feelings for him I held myself back because of those things. To be quite honest I was just scared because I knew he could be the real deal! So I decided to just keep talking to this other guy that was nothing but a jerk!
Back to Tom's birthday. Since he was going to be leaving for Iraq soon we wanted to make his birthday as memorable as possible. So we planned a fun weekend at Six Flags. And let me tell you....It. Was. Fun.
Little did I know Tom also had a crush on me! Come to find out(for me a few years later) during that day with my cell phone being in Tom's pocket, that "other" guy that I had been talking kept calling me all day and Tom was pressing the ignore button every time!!! Can you believe that??!!! I can;)
After a great day we all headed back to the hotel to just relax. All of us were just hanging out and having a good time and Matt decided he HAD to have a cigarette!! EWW!!! So I told him I would keep him company so he didn't have to be alone. As we sat outside he started asking me if I liked Tom and I replied that I thought he was a great guy but I didn't like him like that. Then he told me that Tom liked me and I was leading him on!! I had no idea how!!!!!!!!!!!lol So I asked Matt to let him know that I just wanted to be friends.
The next day we headed back home and I had a surprise waiting for him. His favorite cake is a Dairy Queen icecream cake so I searched everywhere within 50 miles and finally found one. When we got to the house we sang happy birthday to him and ate some cake.
As I sat on the couch next to him and ate my cake I started to realize that I really did like this guy I just didn't know if that was enough..............
