Schoolmates, numbers, bus rides thrilled 5-year-old
Updated 8:35 pm, Thursday, January 24, 2013
Judy Sanders had heard that second children were different from first-borns, so when her son Alan was born she wasn't surprised by the difference between him and his brother Kevin. Alan Peter Sanders “had a big personality, always fearless, just always out there,” Judy Sanders said. “He's lucky his big brother was laid-back because another big brother would have thumped him.”
Alan Sanders died Jan. 17 of pediatric sarcoma at age 5.
“Alan was such an easy little boy to please,” said family friend Karen Gordon. “It didn't take expensive toys or games — rides on scooters ... songs sung, books read, hands held” were all it took to make him happy.
Because he always wanted to push more buttons to stop at more floors when riding the elevator in the hospital, the Make-A-Wish Foundation arranged for Alan to visit the Weston Centre so he could push and stop at as many floors as he wanted. On every floor there were balloons and well-wishers. But with three banks of elevators and 30 floors to play with, “even Alan was getting overwhelmed by the amount of attention,” Judy Sanders said.
Alan was a particularly social little boy who because of his treatments had been isolated. So when he was able to start pre-K, he was thrilled.
“He craved the company with other kids,” his mother said. “The first day of school, he was so excited to go on the bus with his big brother, he cried when the bus brought him back. He'd been dying to go on that bus for two years.” By the end of the week, though, he realized he would get to go every day and stopped crying when the bus brought him home.
At school, Alan loved circle time when his teacher would gather the students around her to teach about subjects such as the weather and days of the week. and the letter and number of the week.
Everyone from his parents to family friends was amazed by Alan's ability with numbers. “It did not matter how small or big the number,” friend Angela Lopez recalled. “He was not only fascinated but really studied and would figure out number facts. It was amazing to see.” She also remembered how he would wear a “big green calculator on top of his head like a hat ... like he wanted all the numbers from the calculator in his brain.”
But most of all, he was a sweet boy. “Even to the last minutes he blew kisses to his mama,” Lopez said.
Alan Peter Sanders