SOUTH PORTLAND — Evan Mayone beloved tooling round in his mom’s 2008 Volvo convertible, Ray-Ban sun shades on, baseball cap turned backward.
He bought his driver’s allow in 2020 and his license as quickly as he turned 16 the next summer season. He volunteered to chauffeur members of the family and buddies wherever they wished to go. He referred to as it “taking part in Uber.”
Evan Mayone, left, together with his mom, Kimberly, and father, Mark, at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth in 2021. Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Mayone
He drove his mom to and from her job at an Outdated Port restaurant. He met buddies for breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts. He chased the moon to Cape Elizabeth simply to see it rise over Kettle Cove.
“He beloved driving,” his mother Kimberly Mayone mentioned. “I’m glad he bought to do this.”
A couple of months later, in November 2021, Evan was recognized with leukemia and started a valiant 14-month battle to beat the newest of well being points that challenged him from delivery. He by no means drove once more.
Evan died Dec. 29 at Boston Youngsters’s Hospital from chemotherapy problems that broken his pancreas and different organs, however they by no means dulled his joyous spirit, fast wit, unflagging compassion and tenacious will. He was 17.
“To the second he handed, he was centered on getting higher,” his mom mentioned. “He informed me, ‘I’m not achieved but.’ ”
Born at Maine Medical Middle in Portland, Evan struggled to thrive as a child and was transferred to Boston Youngsters’s Hospital, the place he was recognized with ichthyosis, a uncommon pores and skin dysfunction that brought about thick, scaly, delicate areas to develop on his palms, ft and joints.
Evan Mayone Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Mayone
The situation made publicity to excessive temperatures probably life-threatening as a result of he was unable to sweat, so air-con was crucial spring by means of fall and strenuous exercise needed to be monitored.
However he by no means let it sluggish him down or diminish his spirit, even when it sometimes required him to make use of a wheelchair, mentioned Carol Bartlett, a former training technician who labored with Evan all through his years at Dyer Elementary and Memorial Center faculties.
Bartlett carried a primary assist equipment wherever they went so she might deal with the blisters and different pores and skin accidents he bought each day.
“He lived with a severe well being situation, however he didn’t let it outline him,” she mentioned. “He was probably the most optimistic, unimaginable child and good as a whip. He taught me greater than I ever taught him.”
Evan had a devoted posse of buddies, a lot of them women, who shared his curiosity in style, social media, meals and different tendencies. Greta Cobb was his next-door finest good friend since they had been toddlers. They spent hours each summer season staying cool within the Mayones’ yard pool.
“He was like a brother to me,” mentioned Cobb, 18, now a freshman at Wheaton School in Massachusetts. “Our friendship stemmed from telling jokes and serving to one another. He helped me by means of lots, and he was so type. Kindness. That was the No. 1 factor he confirmed me and others, even once they weren’t type to him.”
They bought their driver’s licenses days aside and went driving collectively in separate automobiles in order that they wouldn’t break the regulation in opposition to carrying underage passengers for 9 months. They stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts and bought ice teas and breakfast sandwiches and wound up parking side-by-side within the lot at Shaw’s grocery store.
“We sat there with our home windows rolled down, laughing and speaking about probably the most random issues,” Cobb mentioned.
At South Portland Excessive College, Evan was a member of the yearbook workers and the fairness steering committee, and he served as class president his freshman and sophomore years. He labored as a doorman at The Portland Home, a big condominium constructing that overlooks Portland Harbor.
“He beloved that job as a result of he was so snug speaking with anybody,” his mom mentioned. “He had good manners and he knew about every thing, so he might converse with all totally different sorts of individuals.”
Evan beloved to journey and deliberate to review aviation and change into a industrial airline pilot. He was on monitor to begin taking flying classes when he realized he had leukemia.
He by no means misplaced the need to battle his sickness, even after surgical procedure in October to restore his small gut didn’t carry optimistic outcomes instantly. He made plans for the locations he would go and the meals he would eat when he returned to Maine. He regarded ahead to the hospital workers blowing bubbles in a “bubble parade” as he left the intensive care unit. It wasn’t meant to be.
“Ultimately it was all an excessive amount of and his physique was drained,” mentioned his mom, who stayed in Boston all through Evan’s hospitalization.
Evan Mayone, entrance left, together with his household on Thanksgiving Day 2019, together with his sister, Sophia, at proper, and his brother, Harrison, mom, Kimberly, and father, Mark, standing behind him. Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Mayone
In his remaining hours, she performed greater than 100 audio messages despatched by buddies and family members. They wheeled a second mattress into his room so his household might take turns laying beside him, together with his father, Mark, a postal employee, his brother, Harrison, an Military specialist stationed in Germany, and his sister, Sophia, a chemical engineering main at Ohio State.
“We’re a snuggly household and we couldn’t actually snuggle with him in any other case,” his mom mentioned. “It was peaceable. We performed fairly music. We watched airplane recognizing movies on YouTube.”
The household has invited everybody to attend a funeral Mass for Evan at 10 a.m. Tuesday on the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland. At his request, folks ought to put on Hawaiian shirts or seaside colours like turquoise, sea inexperienced and coral.
“Evan was well-known for carrying Hawaiian shirts,” his mom mentioned. “He hated the chilly and beloved tropical climate.”
Following the Mass, a celebration of Evan’s life will probably be held from midday to three p.m. at Solo Italiano, 100 Business St., Portland, the place Kimberly Mayone works as a server. A number of bubble machines will probably be arrange outdoors for his long-awaited bubble parade.
“We’re going to blanket the Portland peninsula in bubbles,” she mentioned. “Oh, there will probably be so many bubbles.”
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