Divorce Me

When an explosion during a training exercise he had led at Camp Lejeune in February 1944 took the sight of Marine Lieutenant Thomas Hasbrook, ableist assumptions about blind people closed in immediately. Tom himself had absorbed the belief that blindness excluded him from meaningful work and contribution, and he told his wife of eleven months, Mary Jane, to divorce him — for perhaps the hundredth time. Mary Jane refused every time. Rather than accept those barriers, she brought a typewriter to the hospital and taught him to type. His mother began learning Braille herself and taught Tom as she progressed. A deck of cards became an early teaching tool, helping him understand the value of learning to read and write by touch.

Within weeks, the Veterans Administration (VA) transferred Tom to its hospital in Philadelphia for further treatment and blindness rehabilitation. During one visit, Tom overheard his father-in-law telling Mary Jane that her friends would graduate from college, build careers, and raise families, while marriage to a blind man would be a barrier to her own future. The words hardened Tom's resolve. A priest visiting the hospital listened as Tom voiced his fears: would he always face access barriers, even to walk from a car to a doctor's office? The priest suggested he explore training with a guide dog. A few weeks after leaving the VA hospital, Tom was in Morristown, New Jersey, training with his first guide dog. When the couple returned to Indianapolis, Mary Jane watched from the window on his first day back at work as Tom raised his thumb, caught a ride in the snow, and returned home safely; she began to understand that he could travel independently.

Tom joined the public relations department at Eli Lilly as a staff writer, transcribing documents from Ediphone wax recordings with precision that made him an asset. But at his father's urging, Tom visited the local Veterans Affairs office to inquire about benefits — and encountered his first direct experience with discrimination as a blind person: a security guard told him he could not bring his guide dog inside. Tom explained he needed the guide dog to reach the second-floor offices; the guard refused. Rather than accept that exclusion, Tom crossed the street to his state representative's office and told his story. Together they walked to the state capital, where Tom addressed other legislators. A bill was drafted that morning to guarantee access to public buildings for blind people using a cane or guide dog. It passed both chambers that afternoon and was signed into law that evening — an unprecedented legislative feat.

Tom soon became active in the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) and was elected its national president in 1948, traveling widely to urge blind veterans to organize, advocate, and demand meaningful employment opportunities, pressing national leaders for stronger laws and better rehabilitation policies. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1951 to 1955, then in the Indiana Senate until 1958; in 1960 he was elected to the Indianapolis City Council, later serving as council president and deputy mayor. In the 1950s, he helped found Bosma Enterprises, creating pathways to employment for blind Hoosiers — the organization continues to honor him through the annual Thomas C. Hasbrook Award Luncheon. For community builders, Tom Hasbrook's life shows that when blind people organize to demand their rights, press for legislation, and build employment pathways, barriers fall — not through charity, but through sustained advocacy and shared responsibility. Tom and Mary Jane never divorced; Tom died exactly four months after his wife, who had refused to give up on him fifty-two years earlier.

Read the Full Article: "Divorce Me".
By: Peggy Chong