Thomas Gordon has dreamed of being an author since he was 5 years old.
Over the years, he could see the story he wanted to write forming in his mind. A lover of the ocean, his family’s trips to North Myrtle Beach, and an eventual relocation to the coastal city, helped solidify the book’s plot and its characters.
But getting the book written, as well as published, became a challenge for the now 21-year-old. In 2014, he was diagnosed with the mitochondrial disease Kearns-Sayre syndrome, a rare neuromuscular condition in which symptoms usually appear before the age of 20. Gordon was 12 when he diagnosed. There is no cure for the disease, but it can be treated.
The disease has robbed Gordon of his eyesight, and he relies on hearing aids. He can’t walk, hold a pen or type. But his mind remains sharp, and he maintains a clever wit whenever he speaks.
Writing ‘Pearl Tides and the Search for the Pahunas’
He managed writing the story through his mother, who became his ghostwriter of sorts. But every word and idea in “Pearl Tides and the Search for the Pahunas” is Gordon’s, his mother Missy Gibbons-Gordon said…