Tom Domingue (TD) and Dotty Domingue (DD)
TD: When I got home, I had a back brace and two leg braces. And um.. I could barely move my head back and forth.
DD: How did they take care of you?
TD: My mother of course spoiled me. I was a cute little curly-haired kid and could do no wrong, so she doted on me all the time, anything I wanted. If I didn’t like my lettuce because it didn’t taste too good, she would put sugar on it. Things like that. And she wouldn’t let me walk, she would carry me everywhere. And my stepfather was starting to see how she was starting to influence my living habits. So he finally talked her into going… getting away, ”Tommy’s fine, I’ll be with him. Why don’t you go shopping and visit friends.”
And the first time she left, as soon as the car disappeared, my stepfather, a great big longshoreman, he grabbed me and here I am with my back brace, which is killing me; my leg braces. He plunks me up and puts me in the middle of the floor in the living room with no furniture around and said, ”Okay damn it, walk or fall!”. I hated him, I was crying, I wanted my mother. I was so mad at him, and I took a step. And I was teetering about to fall and he was right there and he caught me and he said ”ah that’s great , you did great” And we kept that a secret. We didn’t tell my mother what we were doing. So he would encourage her to leave and he would do it again. And I would ask to be plunked. And eventually I started getting more and more strength and I did it because of him and I looked back.
