The Trouble With Tom

The Trouble With Tom is a triumphant story of a childhood gone tragically wrong and a family doing whatever it takes to make things right. Single parenthood wasn't difficult for Susan because Tom made it easy for her. He was a happy, well-adjusted and well behaved child. He was almost perfect. Life was almost perfect. That is, until Tom was 11 years old and suffered a horrific sexual assault. With the support of family and his involvement in sports, Tom managed to get his life back on track and was doing well until he suffered a life changing injury. Without sports as a coping mechanism, Tom turns to drugs. Refusing to give up on her child, Susan is in a desperate race to save Tom from self-destruction until she realizes the only way to help is to let him face his demons on his own terms. After Susan exhausts every option, she is left with no choice but to let go of her son; not realizing it is the best thing she can do for her and her son.

Susan Thomassen was raised in Plymouth, Ma and resides there today with her husband Dave. She graduated from Quincy College in 1998 with a degree in nursing. Before nursing school, she completed her degree in office administration, and then took classes at Northeastern University, School of Journalism until she enrolled in nursing school.Susan began her nursing profession working on an adolescent forensic unit at Pembroke Hospital. From there she served as a Registered Nurse at McLean Hospital Southeast as a unit nurse, then Nurse Manager for a duel diagnosis step down unit.In 2002, Susan began working at Cape Cod Hospital, Cape Psych Center, ultimately accepting the position of Support Nurse for troubled children and their parents, and remained there until October 2008. While working for Cape Psych Center, Susan was nominated for the Nursing Excellence Award of Cape Cod Healthcare. During Susan's years working with parent's of troubled children, she recognized a common thread in many of her conversations: The difficulty parent's were having letting go of their child, or recognizing that is what they needed to do. Having raised her own troubled child, coupled with her life-long desire to write, she chronicled her own experience in The Trouble With Tom: A Parent's Lesson on Letting Go.