Tillman suit against sheriff draws strong responses
September 30, 2015Not their finest hour
September 30, 2015
The year was 2005 when Arthur Eschete Jr., known to everyone as Tiger, left Terrebonne Parish for a position with an engineering firm on Long Island, all the way up in New York, where he earned a reputation for being a problem solver with an engineering firm.
The company, H2M, does engineering and they have been doing this for a long time. Tiger was, apparently, just what the doctor ordered for supervision of some very special projects, and although he missed the family and the bayous he knew it was the right thing to do.
Tiger and his father, Arthur Sr., now 70, have always been close. Back during the oil bust of the 1980s when Tiger had just gotten out of high school he kept up with his dad, as the family’s living bounced from the hard-pressed off shore oil sector to seafood and even painting, as in houses not portraits.
The oilfield returned and Tiger kept close to the trades that involve building things and seeing that they are done right, and that’s what he did until it came time to leave because when opportunity knocks you don’t fiddle-faddle.
So Tiger kept really busy as a department manger for H2M inspections out of their Long Island headquarters.
Elevated water storage towers, various superstructures, bridges, tunnels, water plants, he inspected all of them and loved the work.
Tiger kept close with the kinfolk while he was gone, which should not surprise anyone who knows him.
It cannot be ignored, and so must be mentioned, that Tiger’s dad and his mom, Linda, have been subjects of controversy, what with the really strict dress code they have for women especially who come into their shop to buy crawfish and other seafood. A lot of people have expressed offense at that.
But the Linda and Arthur Sr. have held close to their traditions and desires and nothing so far is known to have resulted in official problems with that.
The many customers who are not offended by the dress code say they wouldn’t buy their seafood anywhere else.
This has been a problem lately because the shop has been open with irregularity.
It is a testament to the fact that you don’t always know what’s going on with somebody when you think there is cause to complain. In the case of Tiger’s dad, it is the cancer that he makes no secret of, but which has been a big challenge.
There is the chemotherapy and all the work the doctors are doing at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in regard to this ailment, which is Stage 4 lung cancer.
Tiger, up in New York, found out about this about six months ago and from that moment on, despite the great success up there, the satisfaction with the work and all of that, there was no question about what he needed to do.
“It was time to come,” Tiger said.
There wasn’t going to be time for seeing about a new job down here, although Tiger considers himself highly employable and a lot of people would agree.
From the day he returned Tiger has done stuff with his dad, painting property he owns and also helping with the back and forth for the chemo. Arthur Sr. is, as many will tell you, a rather stubborn fellow and he aims to give the cancer as hard a time as he does anything or anyone else that crosses him.
And now, with Tiger by his side, he’s got a very special kind of backup.
You might think it is a wonderful thing for a son to do whatever it takes to be with his dad when this kind of thing happens, to put aside his career and how unfair it is that illness can do all of this.
But sometimes goodness gets rewarded.
The people up in New York, H2M, decided they can’t get along as well as they would like without Tiger. So they made a really nice offer for him to continue as a consultant, from here in Louisiana. So the elephant in the room, the career thing, shrank to being nothing at all.
Now as he continues the fight of and for his life, Arthur Sr. is confident that his son will help keep the business going, along with all the other assistance.
And that’s just fine with Linda.
“God always has a plan for all of us,” she says. “We just have to listen and do the right things.”
