No organization would be complete without its share of characters. Thomas is a member of Walking Group 26. It didn’t take the volunteers long to realize that one of the walkers was a bit special. However, it wasn’t until Thomas joined the Bereavement Self-Help Social Group that we noticed the truly whimsical side of his nature.

He came to a barbecue dressed as a caveman. Halfway through the afternoon, he changed into a farmer’s outfit. We met him once, on a Saturday morning, with his walking group. He was wearing a wig. For the life of me, I couldn’t connect the wig and Thomas. I will spare you the grisly details of what he pulled off on his walking group one April Fool’s day.

Who will ever forget his dignified and stunning appearance at the third Walk for Awareness in his perfectly fitted Superman costume? Then, at a Saturday night social, he came adorned with a variety of well-placed rings cleverly placed here and there. I am not talking about fingers, people. The rings were fake, thank the Good Lord!

There is another side of Thomas. When it comes to gathering and turning cans and bottles into money, our man, Thomas, has no equal. He has trained friends in his condo and several other buildings to understand that their cans and bottles belong, exclusively, to him. Thomas supports several charities, and Victoria Hospice is one of the happy recipients of his efforts. This year, Thomas donated a large can of coins totaling over a thousand dollars!

There is more! Thomas has a grandson who is following closely in his footsteps. One day, Thomas and his grandson turned up with two large bottles full of pennies for Hospice.

The office staff greeted Thomas and the pennies with suitable words of appreciation but also with some expressed misgivings. After exchanging worried and meaningful looks, the staff handed Thomas a bag full of penny wrappers and invited him to return with the pennies nicely encased in those cute little wrappers. Thomas did exactly that. He picked up the two bottles and came back with 120 rolls of pennies.

During the last few years, Thomas has lost most of his hearing. Naturally, this unfortunate turn of events interferes with his crib playing, so Thomas promptly took a course in lip reading, and life goes on. Every year at our last gathering before Christmas, we hesitate to think about the pranks he will play on his friends. We do, however, have fun anticipating his antics.

Thomas is one of those people who demonstrate the strength of the human spirit. We all admire and love this free-spirited man.