TA Swain Man-Story

A Story of Tragedy & Triumph

A Story of Tragedy & Triumph

"Clouds and darkness surround us, yet Heaven is just, and the day of triumph will surely come, when justice and truth will be vindicated."-Mary Todd Lincoln

Young TA began his life with all the simple pleasures that a child needs. He had loving parents, a little sister, and a baby brother. He and his family lived in a humble home in a small town in northern Indiana. TA's days were filled will laughter and his heart overflowed with joy. His mother, who stayed home to care for he and his siblings while his father worked, used to bake cookies and create games and activities that would spark TA's wild imagination. He would explore frontiers of his mind that had yet to be traversed. When his tired father would return from work each night the whole family would sit down at the dinner table for a warm home cooked meal. TA could always see the love in his parents eyes as they gazed at each other from across the table. He and his baby brother and little sister would look at each other and giggle every time their father would take their mother into his arms, holding her close, and shower her with kisses. Their's was a charmed existence. That is until that dreadful night that it all changed.

It was really something so simple and easily prevented, but while the family slept a space heater in the baby's room was set to close to a curtain. The curtain heated up and then lit like a wick. TA's mother and father woke to the painful screams of their baby boy as he was trapped in his crib and being overcome with the heat from the fire and suffocating smoke. TA's mother quickly ran to rouse TA and his little sister from bed and to corral them out the front door. But the flames spread quickly. By time TA's mother had awakened him the whole house was engulfed in flames. TA could hear his baby brother still screaming as he, his mother, and his little sister crawled their way out of the home. TA's mother began yelling for help while neighbors slumbered out to see what was causing the commotion. As the firetrucks, police, and paramedics arrived the house began to collapse in on itself. TA's mother fell to her knees, barely able to breath, as she knew that something else had gone terribly wrong. Her husband and baby boy had never made it out.

Losing his father and baby brother to a tragic house fire was not the end of TA's travails. His parents never purchased Fire Insurance for their home and worst of all, TA's father did not have Life Insurance. His mother was a housewife all of her adult life and as such found it difficult to translate her homemaking expertise into viable skills to offer for work. TA, his mother, and his little sister stayed with neighbors while TA's mother looked for employment. To help the neighbors with the extra expense of housing her family, TA's mother did housekeeping chores for other families in the town in return for some spare change. The stress of recovering from the loss of her husband and baby while trying to provide for her two remaining children was too much. TA's mother committed suicide late one night after she had tucked TA and his little sister in bed.

TA and his little sister awoke the following day to see their mother on a gurney with a white sheet over her prostrate body being hoisted into the back of a hearse. A very homely looking woman in a brown tweed suitdress grabbed the still sleepy children by their wrists and dragged them to the back seat of her car. She took them to a sterile and bland building where TA and his little sister found they were in the company of other children without mothers and fathers. They were in an orphanage.

And for 2 years TA and his little sister acclimated to their new environs. Gaining new friends, having moments of laughter, and promising to never leave one another's side. But destiny would not allow for their tragedy to end. TA's baby sister was sent to live with her new adoptive parents. Her new adoptive parents had insisted that they were only interested in a little girl. The orphanage was overcapacity with parentless children and so it was decided that separating TA and his little sister served the interest of the orphanage best.

TA would never see his little sister again. The adoptive family abused her so viscously over the following year that a final slamming of her fragile little head against a wall for having spilt a little juice on the floor was enough to cause her brain to hemorrhage. She died from her injuries.

TA was now all alone in the world. He could have become angry, lashing out, and behaving with reckless abandon. Or, he could have withdrawn into himself, never speaking or opening up to anyone. But instead, even at such a young age, TA felt empathy. He felt the need, the purpose, the absolute necessity to do all that he could to help protect other families from the tragedies that had befallen his own.

TA used to imagine how that tragic night that cost his family their home and the lives of two loved ones could have just ended there. He imagined his mother still being alive not worrying about money because his father's Life Insurance policy covered for his burial and living expenses for his family. They would be living in a newly built home thanks to having had Fire Insurance on their house. TA imagined he and his little sister never being forced to break that promise to never leave one another's side. TA imagined how life might not have been as tragic if only . . .

The T.A. Swain Insurance Group uses the service mark aptly registered as "TA Swain Man". The "TA Swain Man" represents three aspects of our independent brokerage that we feel are important to our clients and represent what TA Swain is.

1. The black umbrella is a ubiquitous sign of protection.

2. The business man represents our professionalism.

3. The silhouette style is like a shadow. "It's with you every step of the way."

Don't let tragedy impede your happiness. Be prepared and show how much you care for your family and are concerned with their well being by contacting one of our brokers today. 1.877.TASWAIN(827.9246)