List Member

Maria Sansalone (mother)

What can be said about William: he was and is our only child, a young man, a sweet face with a stubborn disposition, a whisper in time, a shining rock in our stormy sea, a star in the heavens.

His only symptom as a baby was a turned-in left eye, but then the eye began to jiggle, and after many pediatrician visits, eye doctor visits and other check-ups, a thorough exam by a Lions Club orthoptic specialist confirmed our long-standing suspicions, and an MRI was finally ordered. The BT was officially diagnosed on July 29, 1997, after two years of searching.

William's tumor was considered low-grade, which is a good thing in the brain tumor world, because it meant it should be slow to change, but when it was discovered, its size and location deep midbrain made it largely inoperable. Surgery at the time removed just a small part.

Love ... bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
                                                                                             ~ I Corinthians 13:7-8

Around age 3, we were told that it was showing growth, so we went through about 60 weeks of chemo and hospital admissions.Seizures would intensify during chemo, so more often than not, hospital admissions meant seizure admissions. When William graduated from preschool at age 5, he also completed his chemo protocol.

We did our best to live life to the fullest while we became better advocates for our son. As a family, we loved to pursue Wm's interests, from family history & rock collecting to pyramids & Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and we travelled as much as possible.

In 2002, we were told we could consider a second brain surgery, which successfully stopped most of the seizures for a short period of time. In 2004, signs of more growth meant another course of chemo.  Summer 2005, we watched as Wm endured over a monthlong admission due to complications related to treatment, our new friends in PICU making his stay as loving and comfortable as possible.

On July 29, 2005, at age 10, William graduated to the Other Side, showing his Dad swirling dancing air as he left. We know his spirit lives on with friends & family in God's Light ...

In our minds & hearts, William is verbal, strong, happy, willful, compassionate & thoughtful. He is proud of everything he came to be: a Webelos Scout, an AIC & Merriam-Webster fan, Talmadge Elementary School and Camp Massasoit alum, honorary Baggie, NASA supporter, CureSearch/NCCF childhood cancer advocate, Texas Roadhouse regular, Flash's buddy, and perpetual Griffin's Friends Boston Marathon team captain. We all love you Will!

I invite you to enter for a moment
into Sacred Time and Space,
into a way of seeing that is broad and spacious.
See this Day, from the time you arose this morning
until you sleep this evening, as one Ceremony,
divided into small and familiar rituals,
your Heart as the Altar.
You, part of the Cycles of Light and Darkness.

Now begin to see your Life,
from the moment of your Conception
until the time of your Death
as one long, continuous Ceremony,
filled with many rituals,
some familiar, some unknown and challenging.
Your Home and all Your Relations, the Altar.
You, part of many Seasons and Cycles.

Now see this Ceremony of your Life
as part of a much larger Ceremony that extends
Seven Generations into the Past and Seven into the Future,
made up of many Births and Deaths.
This beautiful spinning Earth the Altar.
You, part of the great Ebb and Flow.

Now, if You will, imagine this larger Ceremony
to be but one part of a Ceremony so grand,
so magnificent as to be hardly comprehensible,
a great, vast Ceremonial Circle, rich and vibrant
with millions upon millions of swirling
Circles of Dancing Light,
and You, one of those Dancing Circles,
a Dancer on the Altar that is the Universe,
where Time is Eternal.

May You Dance In Beauty.