Tom Johnson helps out in Sierra Leone

Johnson is a sort of surgery broker and last year arranged operations in Ghana for two little girls suffering from tuberculosis of the spine. The disease paralyzed the girls from the hips down. Johnson has been told that they are now back on their feet and he was hoping to dance with them on Christmas Eve.

Johnson is a college graduate who makes his living as a handyman. He likes to work alone, unbossed and free to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. He is a little guy, but powerfully built and very strong. He seems to prefer work clothes that most people would have thrown away years ago. A fiddler with the Dicey Riley band, he plays Irish music regularly at the Pub at the Marriott Hotel on Route 10 in Whippany.

Don't miss the rest of John McLaughlin's article.