The Nutcracker Prince By Leslie McCarthy South County Times

http://www.southcountytimes.com/Articles-Columnists-c-2017-12-21-202752.114137-sub28364.114137-The-Nutcracker-Prince.html

December 22, 2017

 

For Wil Ohler, a Lindbergh junior, Christmas has always been about nutcrackers.

 

A collection that started because his mom, Tamara, wanted to make sure each of her three children would have legacy decorations for their own homes. For the oldest, it was Santas; for her sister, snowmen. When Wil came along, the girls chose nutcrackers for their baby brother.

 

His collection grew as he did, along with an effervescent personality and a love of soccer. "He's that kid everyone gravitates toward," said Tamara Ohler, who teaches in the PEGS program at Sperreng Middle School. "Anywhere he goes, everyone's like, 'WiLLLLLLLLL!'"

 

Once, he saw a young couple eyeing a nutcracker in a store and overheard them say they couldn't afford it. He had his mom buy it, and then hurried to catch them in the parking lot. It was the start of an annual thing, Wil's nutcracker giveaway to start the holiday season. This year would be no different. Until it was.

 

In May, a sinus infection he couldn't shake, along with a bruise and mouth sores he didn't think to bother his mom about. One day, he's a 16-year-old select soccer player looking forward to summer; the next he and his mom are being told he has t-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

 

"All the air got sucked out of the room," Ohler said. "He looked at me and said, 'Mom, what did I do?' I jumped on the table, hugged him and said, 'You didn't do anything, Buddy."

 

Since then, it's been seven months of intensive chemotherapy: Two steps forward, one violently ill step back. Some of us know leukemia too well.

 

They fought through treatments, mother and son. "You have a lot of interesting conversations you don't anticipate having with a 16-year-old boy," Ohler said. "Somehow, you get through it."

 

One way was to have something to look forward to, and Ohler says she and Wil talked about giving out nutcrackers this year to kids at the Cardinals Kids Cancer Center at Mercy-St. Louis. With an assist from their Lindbergh family — you always get by with help from your friends — they collected more than 50 variations of the toy soldiers.

 

After delivering nutcrackers to the kids, Ohler says she and Wil spent four hours on his Dec. 7 birthday driving to Walmarts, Goodwills and gas stations distributing the rest to total strangers. "He was feeling the side effects," she said, "but didn't want to stop. We just laughed and talked, and kept going."

 

Mission accomplished. And so is his first phase of chemo. Today, Dec. 22, Wil has a scheduled lumbar puncture to check his spinal fluid. "Today will tell us a lot about the next three years," Ohler said.

 

They're optimistic. His mom says Wil has every intention to play soccer by next fall. He soldiers on, this young collector of nutcrackers.