It is with immense, heart-wrenching sadness that we must say goodbye to Mason. On September 18, 2019 Mason passed away from complications due to Leukemia. He was 12 years old. From before he could even talk, Mason has been busy accompanying Maxwell and me and helping us with projects. We’ve built lots of fun things together over the years including model railroads, robots, all sorts of electronic gizmos, fancy blinking Neopixel lights, programmed Arduinos, built CNC routers and 3D printers– pretty much anything you can think of, if it’s fun and technical, we probably did it!
Mason’s dream was to attend MIT upon graduating high school and he had the grades for it, he was a straight-A student and always on the Honor Roll. He spent hours studying math and science with his tutors, and spent much of this past summer learning Calculus. One day he was sitting in the hospital and received a mysterious package out of the blue. He was thrilled when he opened it up and pulled out gobs of MIT loot! T-Shirts and Buttons and Hats and books– even a photo signed by a real MIT astronaut. He hardly went anywhere afterwards without wearing one of those MIT shirts.
Click here to view the album we put together to celebrate Mason’s life, spirit and creativity…
Maxwell and I will continue to tinker, build, poke-around and experiment with fun stuff and in this way we’ll do our best to keep Mason’s memory alive and in our hearts. But it goes without saying that we’re going to miss our little guy every single day– his warmth, his humor, his youthful glee and spirit, and most of all the peals of laughter and giggles coming from behind his computer screen as he sat up gaming with his friends into the wee hours of the night!
Mason, my beautiful boy, you will be greatly missed.
In summary, Mason was many things, a great student, a great experimenter, a great spirit and a great son! He had many aspects and tons of great potential to go very far in life. He was loved by all who knew him and he touched hearts and made friends everywhere he went. He often endured great pain and personal suffering and came out cheerful and smiling.
I would like to end this tribute with Mason’s own words:
(Here’s the link to the whole video from the start)
Doing more: If you would like to join us in celebrating Mason’s life, please join our “Mason’s Army” Facebook group, or view his photo album. And we would like to take a moment to urge you to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Here is the link to their donation page.
