THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050365
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MOYOCK LENGTH: 130 lines
Josh Wilkinson loved wicked weather.
He'd sit for hours tracking severe storms on The Weather Channel. He made his mom take him to see the movie ``Twister'' three times.
So it seemed only fitting that on Sept. 6, the night Hurricane Fran hit eastern North Carolina, 16-year-old Josh was in heaven.
The Moyock teen-ager lost a battle with cancer on that night, but not before touching the lives of many people and gaining an unusual following among those he met while he was dying.
``I remember the wind was really blowing outside that night,'' said his mother, Nancy Wilkinson.
``We all were amazed. We all said, `Look at this - Josh is going out just as he would have wanted.' ''
What her mentally-challenged son also wanted was to be universally loved. And according to the people who knew him, he was.
``Josh was a very special soul,'' said Tina Gustin, a registered nurse at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. ``He touched a lot of people up here.''
That much is evident from the support the hospital staff provided during the 18 months Josh was being treated for Ewings sarcoma, the second most common malignant bone tumor among children.
Residents would visit Josh after they'd finished their rounds or rotations. Josh's attending physician, oncologist Dr. William C. Owen, would call the Wilkinsons in North Carolina to check on his patient.
The hospital's cleaning staff and cafeteria workers made an extra effort to say hello when they saw Josh.
And for weeks after Josh died, the Wilkinson's mailbox overflowed with sympathy cards, including one signed by at least 50 people in one hospital ward. Most people's cards carried handwritten messages about how much the teen-ager meant to them.
Gustin and another staff nurse, Wendy Davis, stayed with the Wilkinsons when they took their son home for the final time over Labor Day weekend. Although they were unable to medically treat their patient beyond the Virginia state line, the nurses came to Moyock to offer the family moral support.
Davis, who has worked at King's Daughters for seven years, became very fond of Nancy Wilkinson.
Josh had been mentally disabled since suffering a seizure when he was 8 months old. He didn't learn to speak until he was 10 years old, his father said.
Davis admired Nancy Wilkinson's honesty: ``If she was afraid, she would tell you. If she was angry about something, she would tell you.''
Fear and anger were two emotions that Nancy and Jim Wilkinson had grown accustomed to since December 1994 when their son, then 14, began to feel ill.
Three times Josh was taken to North Carolina doctors and given three different diagnoses, including growing pains and a sinus infection. The only symptoms were a low-grade fever and Josh telling his mother that his legs hurt.
Josh, who loomed 6-feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds, never complained and had a tremendous capacity for pain.
``Josh was always smiling,'' his mother said. ``He was always in a good mood. He just didn't look sick.''
Josh's condition also bothered another person familiar with his health - Dee Talley, the school nurse at Currituck County High School.
Josh had been attending classes for the mentally disabled at the Barco high school since the family moved to Moyock from Chesapeake in 1993.
Talley suggested Josh be taken to King's Daughters.
Josh was admitted to the hospital the day they arrived.
That was early March 1995. Several days later a large malignant tumor later was removed from Josh's pelvis. The cancer had already spread to his lungs and bone marrow, narrowing his chances of survival to about 20 percent. The prognosis was so poor, in fact, that doctors initially offered the family the option of not doing any treatment.
Instead, Josh and his parents and his older sister, Lori, became regulars at King's Daughters over the next 18 months. Nancy Wilkinson quit her job working with her brick-mason contractor husband to tend to Josh full time.
``Transfusions alone took all day, and he had 85 of them,'' she said.
During chemotherapy, Josh never complained about the nausea and seemed not to be fazed by the vomiting. He made a game out of losing his hair, asking his mother to help pull out loose strands and then delighting in snatching the biggest clumps. The discarded hair was deposited in a bucket, which Josh innocently donated to his balding father for future use.
The teen-ager kept that upbeat attitude through his entire treatment.
``Josh never felt ill. I don't think he ever did,'' Davis, the nurse, said. ``He just instilled happiness when you were around him.''
Nancy Wilkinson never knew how her son's peers accepted him at school. He looked like any other teen-ager as he walked down a school hallway, but he saw the world through the mind of a 6-year-old.
``I used to think he was all alone, and nobody would talk to him. Then I discovered differently after he became sick. There was an unbelievable outpouring from the people at the school,'' she said.
Nancy Wilkinson also was amazed at the support she received from her fellow parishioners at Fellowship Baptist Church in Moyock. Church members kept the family's grass cut, carted away trash, brought food and helped keep all-night vigils when Josh was restless.
After one particularly long stretch of discomfort for Josh, church members bought the teen a rocker-recliner with heat massage. It still sits in the living room, surrounding by a wall of family photos.
Jim Wilkinson bought his only son a small stuffed dog for comfort during cancer treatment. Josh named him Ranger after his favorite television characters, ``The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.''
``His dog, Ranger, went where Josh went. He was there with Josh at all times,'' the Rev. James Harrington said during Josh's funeral.
Josh also was a huge ``Star Trek'' fan. In August, he was visited at the hospital by two Klingons who were in town for a ``Star Trek'' convention. The costumed characters greeted him with their customary growl, and Josh, though terribly weak and unable to move, managed a shallow growl back.
Last summer, Josh was contacted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southeastern Virginia, which helps fulfill dreams of terminally ill children. He told Make-A-Wish that he wanted to do two things: see Walt Disney World and take a ride in a limousine.
An October trip was planned.
During the funeral last month, Harrington related several stories about the impact the teen-ager had on people.
One of those stories was about a man who kept a quiet existence and is barely noticed in the community, despite faithfully attending Sunday evening worship each week. Harrington called the man to let him know a service was being canceled because of the Wilkinson viewing in Chesapeake.
Harrington said he later caught a glimpse of the man as he was leaving the funeral home. The minister caught up with him in the parking lot and thanked him for coming.
``He said, `The boy touched me. He touched my life, and I came to pay my respects,' '' Harrington told a packed church that Monday evening.
``That's the story of Joshua Wilkinson,'' Harrington said.
``He touched a lot of lives. . . . He encouraged a lot of people.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color FILE photo
Josh Wilkinson named the stuffed dog his father gave him Ranger,
after his favorite television characters, ``The Mighty Morphin Power
Rangers.'' by CNB