Thomas is the oldest son of Josephine and Nash Sinclair. Born in 1923, he had an excellent childhood for the first seven years of his life, with a nice, comfortable home, lots of friends and cousins to play with and a mother and grandmother who showered him and his sisters with attention. But then the depression hit, and his father lost his job. Forced to move to San Myshuno, Thomas lost all his friends and family in one go. The new apartment was cramped and cold and smelled weird, but on the streets Thomas could find new friends on the playground. Just as he was getting over the loss of all his friends back home and starting to make new ones, however, he was torn up from his home again. This time his parents brought him all the way to Arizona, and an even worse house than before. With no heating, no indoor plumbing and no running water, Thomas saw his parents struggle. It was hard for him too, but as the eldest he tried his hardest not to show much much it worried him. At least there was a lot of other children around, just as dirt poor as they were.
When aunt Anna arrived things started getting better. She bought them a farm, with horses, and taught him how to ride and how to care for the horses. She showered him and his siblings with toys their parents could not afford. Life got better. He got new friends. School went well. And he had the horses. But of course his father went and screwed that up by landing a job in Oasis Springs and forcing the entire family to relocate. Running away, Thomas returns to Chestnut Ridge, where aunt Anna persuades his parents to let him stay. For the reminder of his time in high school, he lives on the farm, spending his time helping Anna with the horses.
Thomas came of age in 1943, in the middle of a raging war. Having just lost several family members, he enlisted straight away, wanting to do his part in the fight. After some training he was sent to the Pacific, and to Tomarang, where he fought out the rest of the war. He was one of the lucky ones and returned physically well, but with a temper that will flare up at the smallest thing and a tendency to stare into space for long periods of time.
Feeling a great need to do good in the world, to heal rather than kill, Thomas used the opportunity for war veterans to go have half the tuition paid to college. He studied medicine to become a doctor. It was hard at first to keep up with his studies, but university was good for him. He got closer to his sister Grace, and eventually fell in love with a girl. But just as he's about to graduate and start looking brightly at the future, his grandmother, Abigail passed away. It was a hard blow and Thomas once more lost his footing for a while, but this time he had something to pick him back up. His love for Betty. Armed with Abigail's engagement ring, he asked her to be his wife. They were married in 1948 and less than a year later their baby boy Michael was born on Christmas Eve 1949.
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