She lost son to rare disease. On anniversary of his birth, ‘Nutcracker’ honors him
During the 22 days Nancy Nauman spent in the hospital with her newborn, she took comfort in the book “Be Brave Little One” by Marianne Richmond.
“We read it to him every night, but we felt like he was reading it to us,” Nauman said. “It tells you to keep going, to be brave.”
Her son, William, died of complications stemming from a surgery to repair arteriovenous malformations in his brain at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University last year.
Nauman said she started the Be Brave Project in William’s memory to pay forward the kindness she received from doctors, nurses, friends and neighbors by bringing the book to more families staying in hospitals with their children.
So far, she’s collected about 200 books to donate to Valley Children’s Hospital.
The project is getting a special boost from the Theater Arts Alliance in Visalia, which will hold a performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet with a pre-show of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” dedicated to William on Saturday The two showings at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the L.J. Williams Theater at Redwood High fall on what would have been William’s first birthday.
The cast features all local actors from 5 to 75 years old, and of varying skill levels, from kids taking their first dance lessons to semi-professional pointe dancers, according to producer Chavaleh Forgey.
Forgey calls the show “pure magic.”
“The lobby is all decorated, everything is lit up and sparkling, there’s thousands of crystals sewn into the costumes,” Forgey said. “It even snows onstage.”
This is the fourth year that TAA has performed “The Nutcracker,” but the first year that they’ve sponsored a charitable project, Forgey said, in part because the Naumans are close friends of the organization: Nancy Nauman’s husband, Josh, is the stage manager for the production.
A portion of the proceeds from the concessions will benefit the Be Brave Project, as well as The Aneurysm and AVM Foundation.
Nauman said she wants to raise awareness of the disease, which refers to an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins and affects only a fraction of a percent of individuals every year.
Still, Nauman said that through a support group, she met others just in Visalia who had been affected by AVM, too.
“It’s hard to get research and funding for a rare disease and we want to help make sure no other family loses a child to AVM,” Nauman said. “I feel like my purpose is to continue living his purpose.”
Tickets for the show are available at the door and through Brown Paper Tickets.