Our lovely Mr Thomas
Sometimes we get asked about the funniest or most emblematic situations we had here at the Hostel. The truth is that we have had a lot of them…but there is always a few that come to our minds.
Mr. Thomas story was one of them.
This is not a typical super happy story. Actually was at the time quite a difficult one, but glad everything turned out to be ok.
Mr. Thomas was one of our oldest clients; he came alone to the Azores with a young and adventurous spirit. We loved the energy of this gentleman. He is quite a gem!
It was the third day he was in the island and we recommended some really nice spots for him to visit, so he was out of the Hostel exploring the Island and I and Filipe received a call. The call was from one of the Poços da Dona Beija* staff members. We were informed that Mr. Thomas has felt and he was going to the Hospital with one broken rib.
After that, we did the best we could to try to locate Mr. Thomas. He was at the urgency. He had 9 ribs broken and needed to be in the Hospital. Well, …long story short he even came back to the Hostel but he had to be admitted again for quite a long time after the diagnosis. He had 9 broken ribs and the lung could be perforated, so he needed to be taken care at the Hospital.
We went visiting Mr. Thomas and as soon as he got better he did visit us as well at the Hostel and almost 2 months later we were informed he would be transported by helicopter to Germany so he could be closer to home.
He left with us his walking sticks, signed by him. He called himself – the walking dead – because of this entire situation, with the promise that in two years he would come back to the Azores. What courageous man!
He actually sent us some really nice emails keeping us updated and finally we got something in the mail….it was an old microscope from Germany almost completely intact and he wanted us to keep it in our vitrine with the relics. How cool was that? We didn’t even expect that, but this was something that we will never forget. This is our way to thank him. Keeping him and his story with us and sharing it with everyone, because our Hostel is more than a Hostel, is experiences and people.
*Poços da Dona Beija is located in Furnas and it is a natural thermal bathing area. A really famous place in São Miguel Island.