Hi, I’m Nicholas but most people call me Nick and sometimes Nicky,

 

I am a 20 year-old student at the University of Rhode Island (URI), an artist, an environmentalist, an animal lover but most importantly, a son, brother, and friend.

 

Please let me tell you a little bit about myself and my life.

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I was born in Worcester, MA on June 25th, 2003, to my loving parents Gisselle and Derek D’Antilio. I was their first child and they sure seemed happy to meet me. I got to spend the first 2 and a half years with just me, my parents, and our first beagle, Clifford. Then two years later, my brother Alex was born and, two and a half years after that, my youngest brother, Christopher (Chris) came along. So, I’m the oldest of three boys, which can be a bit hectic, but I love it and my brothers. We are a trio and best friends. Our youngest brother, Buddy, is also tri-colored beagle. Our family loves beagles and they are great dogs. A small word of caution; if you leave food at Buddy’s level, he considers it fair game, and for this he failed his initial dog training class…but that’s a whole other story.

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I also have a grandfather, Papa Ralph, grandmother, Grandma Eva, and lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles, most of who live very close to us. My grandmother Nancy, grandfather Jorge, and Uncle George all pre-deceased me but we visit them often. I love having a big and close family.

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I met my best and life-long friends, Gino, Dominic, Elexa, Joey, and Christiana, and many others in pre-school and in our neighborhood, and we are still friends today. Isn’t that awesome? I attended Roosevelt Elementary School in Worcester from pre-school through 5th grade. That was a wonderful experience and I’ll always be a Roosevelt Bear (The “Bear” part is after Teddy Roosevelt in case you were wondering. Teddy Bear. Get it?).

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When I was starting the 6th grade we moved to Shrewsbury, MA, a neighboring suburb of Worcester. While it was hard to leave my friends and neighbors, we were lucky to stay close. We moved into a nice neighborhood with really welcoming, friendly, and wonderful neighbors and I still got to see my elementary school friends and old neighbors a lot, so it was a pretty good situation.  

    

When I moved to Shrewsbury, I went to Sherwood Middle School for 6th grade and then Oak Middle for 7th and 8th grade. It was exciting to meet new people and I had a lot of fun, along with your typical middle school challenges. I then went to St Johns’ High School in Shrewsbury for 9th through 12th grade, a good experience and a lot of work but well worth it. There, I met some of my best high school friends: Alex, Christiano, Adrian, and others. My junior year in high school, I was able to attend a really cool environmental sciences trip to Mexico. It was amazing and really peeked my interest in environmental studies. However, shortly after that trip, like most students worldwide, our junior year was cut short by the COVID pandemic, and we went virtual for the last few months. The good news is we resumed on campus classes for my senior year. I really liked my experience at St. Johns, I liked and appreciated the teachers and was part of the art club, the mountain biking club, and the crew team.  

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During elementary, middle and high school, I tried a few sports mostly just for fun and to meet people. I played basketball starting at St. Peters in Worcester all the way through the Worcester High School Catholic Diocesan League. I played some baseball (ok just a year, the pace was a bit slow for me), played football for the Worcester Cowboys and the Shrewsbury Patriots, and rowed crew for a year at St. Johns. One other kind of cool thing I did is I practiced karate for many years, and I actually earned my adult blackbelt (after a lot of pushups).

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As a result of my hard work (and maybe a few nudges from my parents), I was accepted to several colleges. I chose to attend the University of Rhode Island (URI) and become a Rhody Ram! I majored in Environmental and Animal Studies and appreciate that my parents encouraged me to follow my passions. I loved my time at URI (it’s 15 minutes from beautiful Narragansett Beach and Long Island Sound, so that kinda helped)! I met a lot of new friends and participated in clubs and activities that I had never done before; sailing, surfing, scuba, fencing, boxing, and worked on a the campus farm.

 

I also worked these last few years at Davidian Farms in Northborough, at the ice cream stand, the farm store, and of course with the animals (goats, sheep, and a llama that I became friends with). In addition, I did an internship at the Shrewsbury Community Animal Hospital, volunteered at an animal rescue, and was a lifeguard at the Westborough YMCA in the summer of 2023.  

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Now a little about my favorite things.

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First, I love just being with my family and friends, talking, laughing and seeing people happy. There is nothing I enjoy more than having family and friends over at our house for holidays, birthdays, and summer BBQ’s. I grew up with many family traditions and my mom always went all out to make our house so warm, comfortable, inviting, and holiday cheery. She gave me and my brothers (including Clifford and Buddy) some awesome birthday parties. Many of the first ones at farms or zoos (notice a theme here for me with animals..), and then at our house for pool parties and smores by the fire pit. One of the coolest things was I have had the same cousins and friends (the ones from pre-school) at every one of my birthday parties from age of 4 until age 20. Other holiday highlights were my Dad’s Thanksgiving Turkey (the yummy smell when we woke up), a Turkey Trot with my dad, Christmas movies with our family, Christmas mornings at our house, volunteering to deliver food from the church to people on holidays, and painting Easter eggs with my brothers. Thank you, Mom and Dad.  

 

I’ve always loved animals and have wanted to work with and help animals since I could talk. My parents took me to farms and zoos and, I even had a cow named after me in Ecuador! In addition to Clifford and Buddy, I had two parakeets: Larry and Blue. One of my favorite memories is going to see Zookeeper with my dad and Alex, we still watch that movie a lot and I was considering a summer internship at the zoo.

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I also love to travel (flying….not so much but I persevered for the experience). I love to experience different cultures; the food, the environment, and most importantly, meeting new people. I’ve been fortunate to travel a fair amount and to some really cool places; Ecuador (twice, as my mom’s family is from there), Jamaica, Canada, Spain, Italy, Turks and Caicos, and many other places in the U.S. I love the outdoors especially lakes and mountains, biking with my dad and our family, and white water rafting with dad and Alex.

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My overall favorite, and my happy place, is Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. My dad grew up going to “the lake”, staying in his grandparent’s small rustic cottage (Grumpy’ s cottage), and spending summers with his cousins, whose cottage was right next door. He always said this was his favorite place in the world. And back in those “ancient” days, somehow, they even managed without cell phones and WIFI (I know, hard to imagine!). Since he enjoyed it so much, our parents took us to the lake every summer where we rented boats, swam, kayaked, and hiked. Docking a boat with my dad was always, umm…an adventure. The best part was hanging out with many of our cousins at Grumpy and Auntie Mal’s cottages just like our parents had. Picture something like the movie Grown-Up’s.

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I also love art, specifically drawing animation. I particularly like to draw animals, mythical creatures, Pokémon characters, and my favorite cartoons. You can check out some of my artwork on the My Art page of this website. My art is my creative outlet and relaxes me. My other favorite thing to do is watch movies and our family movie nights were some of my happiest moments, our favorite movies were Central Intelligence, Marvel Movies, Jurassic Park, and Disney animation movies. Everyone who knows me, knows my favorite show, is Scooby Doo.

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My Diagnosis and Disease

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Unfortunately, in the fall of 2023 as I began my junior year at URI, I became ill and was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome or MDS. Just two weeks prior, I was feeling great and kayaking and boating on Lake Winnipesaukee with my family. MDS is a blood cancer and often a pre-curser to Leukemia. I also happened to have a mutation of the TP53 gene which is a tumor suppressor gene and the most common genetic alteration in cancer. This is a very rare and aggressive disease for a young adult and, coupled with the TP53 gene mutation, unfortunately has a poor prognosis.

 

I was treated at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston for clinical visits and their inpatient center at Brigham and Woman’s hospital. I went through weekly clinical visits, several rounds of chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants, and spent over 100 days including 77 days in a row in the hospital. Throughout this time, my mom, dad, brothers, relatives, and friends were there at the hospital with me every single day. My mom, dad, and Papa Ralph slept in the hospital chair or on a cot so many nights to keep me company, make me laugh, watch movies we me, and just to encourage and comfort me.

 

I succumbed to this awful disease on May 6th, 2024, surrounded by my wonderful and loving family. I had a good life, a wonderful family and friends and for that I am forever thankful. I am especially grateful for my mom, dad and brothers. Thank you for always being there for me. I want my family and friends to know I will always be here for you, and please feel free to talk to me at any time.

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The doctors, nurses, and physician assistants at Dana Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital were wonderful and I sincerely appreciate their care, empathy, knowledge, and friendship. I want to thank our Priest at St Mary’s, Father Mike Rose for his compassion, prayers, visits to my home and the hospital and helping me keep hope for better times through my Catholic faith. Finally, I want to thank my therapist Keith, who has become a close family friend, for his empathy, support, and friendship. He helped me always see the good in people.

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I asked my dad and mom to please help find a cure for this horrible disease so that other families do not have to suffer, so I ask you to please help them in this cause.

Thank you for visiting and thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Nick