About Thomas Stott

Thomas Alva Stott was born December 30, 2001 to Diane and Edwin Stott in Eden, North Carolina.  We almost lost Thomas at birth due to complications from the delivery, he took a little too deep a breath when he arrived and had a trapped air outside his lungs. Our first week was at Brenner's Children’s Hospital in Winston Salem. It snowed a lot during that week.

When we got home, we hadn’t slept but a few hours that first week, we all cried all night that first night, no clue what to do with our new baby boy.

Thomas grew and began to develop a love of football and sports in general.  He (to his family’s dismay) loved the New England Patriots, especially Tom Brady and Gronk. So many Patriots shirts and hoodies around the house.

Thomas did not care much about school or rather the conventional classroom setting. He did not enjoy lectures! He did however learn quickly with his hands.  Thomas only had to be shown something one time. When he was 12 I let him pick out an orange lawnmower.  Orange was his favorite color. I showed him how to operate the mower. Once. I showed him how to mow. Once.  From that point until he got his first job, he kept our 2 acres mowed for spending money.

Thomas was a salesman and entrepreneur. He loved to buy and resale. Anything. We never knew when he was going to bring something else home. He would bring home motorbikes or four-wheelers and repair them with his buddies and resell them.I always pushed him to go to college or a trade school. What did I know? My son didn’t need that stuff, I did. He was too smart for school.  It is now, through this terrible tragedy that I see just how gifted my son was. He enjoyed riding ATV’s.

Thomas got a job at a local restaurant working bussing tables and washing dishes. There he learned how to interact with the public and his boss. He would buy and sell and eventually got enough money to buy his dream machine, Can Am, a giant 1000 cc four-wheeler which he promptly put a lift kit under along with larger tires. I would argue with him about how heavy that thing was and that it would cause the seals to leak, etc, etc. He would quickly rev the engine through the performance exhaust to drown my nags.  Such a free spirit.  He loved to go to Busco with buddy’s.

Thomas and his buddies and his mama started working on that car. I would complain, “stop wasting your money”, or “there is nothing wrong with that car like it is' '.  But, see Thomas marched to his own drum beat.  It didn’t look the way he wanted it to look, not yet. It didn’t sound like he wanted it to sound, not yet. He would tell me, “Dad if you are stock, then you are a loser” or something like that.  He talked me into helping him lower this car with a lowering kit he bought off of marketplace and some type of glowing lights to go under this vehicle. He would try to do anything himself. Didn’t want help.  “Do it myself” as he said on his way to Mrs. Gusler’s kindergarten class on the first day of school.

I love Toyota Landcruisers.  I love to wheel and go off-road as well. I know where he got that passion.  I purchased a 1983 FJ60 Series Landcruiser.  Thomas and I would talk about lifting it.  I finally purchased the Old Man Emu lift kit that goes with this machine.  Had to get the weight right and ordered these monstrous leaf springs. The only thing was I was recovering from quadruple by-pass surgery. So when the stuff arrived, all I could do was look at it. Thomas asked if he could help and I promptly said when can we start!  When he was seventeen, Thomas cut his teeth on the first lift that he had done on a vehicle with a 60 series landcruiser. Let me tell you now, that is no easy feat.  Especially removing rusted rubber bushings with MAPGas, prybar, fire-extinguisher (kinda close to the gas tank) and grit. I have several photos of him working under that machine in one of his older Patriots shirts.

You see I could go on and on about these memories, even though they are incredibly painful as the loss is still so new.

My hardworking son was killed at age 20 working to become an electrician. He was killed on the job, electrocuted. My son lost his life in a crawl space of a home.  Killed by 120 volts. But this page is not about that.

Thomas was born into a family that believes in Jesus Christ. When Thomas was 8 he was baptized by his grandfather Alva Holland at Horsepasture Christian Church in Virginia. When Thomas went to work that morning talking to his sweetheart, Savannah, about their next date. His mother, Diane, sent him a text that morning, he never opened it. The last time he and I communicated was the Sunday before.  I told him I missed him (he had just moved out of our home to start his life on his own), he said “I miss you too” in his text.  He went to work that morning and stepped into eternity.  

My daddy, Thomas Edwin Stott came to me after the funeral. He said son, I am 80 years old and I know where my grandson is. He is with Jesus Christ. Paul told us in 2 Corinthians that absence from the body means presence with the Lord, for the believer of course. Thomas was a sinner just like all of us. He recognized he needed Jesus at an early age due to the influence of his parents but especially his grandparents. My daddy asked me if we could give away a Bible with a few materials to people so that this terrible tragedy may somehow be used to bring someone to Christ. The Thomas Stott Initiative was born.

My son was taken far too early. It is appointed to man to die once. Whether or not we die the second death is a choice.  The Thomas Stott Initiative exists to provide God’s Holy Word to anyone that hears this story and wants to know more about how Jesus Christ can save their soul. You see the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy. Christ on the other hand comes to give life, abundantly.  That abundant life is eternity. That abundant life is HERE as well. You see it's not the years in the person’s life as much as the LIFE in the person’s years.  Thomas lived. Thomas loved. Thomas was a great friend to many. Thomas is born again. It is our prayer that no one would be left behind.