 "Photo: Michael Ralph")
Senior Eric Gilchrese will greet you with a smile but looks at you through the eyes of a man much older than his twenty-one years. In the two years Gilchrese has played UNH basketball, a sad reality has waited for him at home in Illinois. His mother Eva Powers, whom he said was the most important person in his life at the start of the season, faced a battle with colon cancer.
"It's kind of weird because I found out after one of my basketball games," said Gilchrese. "She had sat me down on the sideline, looked me in the eyes and got teary-eyed. My mama didn't really cry like that. I was like, 'Mama, what's wrong?' She was telling me, 'Son, I'm sick.' And that's when it all started. That's when the first tears came out of me."
The cancer spread to her brain in December. Gilchrese was with the team in Rhode Island when the outlook became dire.
"The doctors were telling me, 'She's got about eight hours left and she might be here when you get here in the morning,'" he said.
Since Gilchrese couldn't get out to Illinois before the morning, he was forced to make due with the phone. "I did get to say my last farewell words to her through the phone. I basically told her I love her, thanks for everything she'd done for me."
Being away from family was difficult for Gilchrese but it was what Ms. Powers wanted.
"She'd never tell me how bad the situation was because she didn't want me coming home, dropping out of school, and trying to take care of her," Gilchrese said. "She always kept it a secret and told the doctors to keep it a secret. She always told me that she'd tell me when it got that bad and it was time to come home."
Gilchrese was not able to get home before she passed. Ms. Powers died around 8:30 p.m. in Illinois surrounded by friends and family and on her son's mind in Rhode Island.
"That's the only thing I feel guilty about, and I know she wouldn't want me to feel like that," he said. "That eats me up a lot inside, just knowing that I should have went home but she was always pushing me to stay up here."
Ms. Powers was a schoolteacher and stressed the importance of staying in school and out of trouble to Gilchrese.
"Growing up, I really didn't have to do some of the things other kids my age had to do because my mother basically tried to feed me with a silver spoon the best way she could," Gilchrese said with a smile.
"The biggest thing she always told me was before I get out on the streets and start selling drugs or doing any of that, she'd give her last. She'd put the house up before I took that route. She told me she'd turn over in her grave if I ever started doing that."
The last time Gilchrese saw his mother was in August when he was flying out to New Hampshire.
"She dropped me off at the airport, she and my dad and one of my sisters, Tia, dropped me off," Gilchrese said. "Before I got out of the car, I hugged my mom for like ten minutes and I cried. She was like, 'Why you crying? I'm going to be alright, I'll be here when you get back.' But I knew deep down inside she wasn't going to be here when I got back. I just held onto her and just cried."
Gilchrese left school and basketball for a month and a half to be with his family. In that time, Gilchrese dealt with more than just losing his mother. He was forced to take the helm for his family.
"It's hard to be a tough guy in a situation like that, but I really didn't show too much emotion," he said. "I knew I had to be the sane one in the house because it was a lot of hectic and mixed emotions and all that type of confusion. I became a man a lot sooner than what most young people my age come to, just with her passing and a whole lot of stuff you have to do."
Gilchrese shared his grief with his sister, Tia, and his 92-year-old grandmother.
"My grandmother's a soldier, so I'm not worried about her," Gilchrese said with a laugh. "The one thing my mother always told me was although I'm the baby, she always told me, 'Son you got to be strong for your sister. She's going to need you more than anybody.''
Despite the emotional turmoil at home, Gilchrese had to come back.
"The easy way out would probably be to stay home," he said. "But I already knew what type of mother my mom was and what she expected out of me. I felt like if I didn't come back I would have let her down and that's the last thing I wanted to do."
Ms. Powers wasn't the only one pulling Gilchrese east. Gilchrese cited coach Scott Weitzell as a source of strength.
"He's like a dad to me," Gilchrese said. "He would call me everyday. 'Things okay? Things okay? Alright, we miss you. Come on back, come on back.'"
Gilchrese did come back. He made his presence known with a 22-point performance in a win against Stony Brook in January.
"Coach Herrion always told me, 'Your time's going to come, I can't tell you when. But when your name and numbers called be ready to step on the court and do what you gotta do,'" he said. "So I was waiting on that moment. And when he finally gave me that moment, I made the best of it. I dedicated that whole game to my mother. When I come out here, I'm just going to go so hard, as hard as I can."
Gilchrese finished the season with 137 points and 44 assists. What was more important though, was that he finished with a sense of strength.
"Finishing the season with everything that I've been through, I felt like if I can get through the season, I can get through anything," he said.
With basketball behind him for the time being, Gilchrese can focus on academics. Because of the time off, he was forced to take some incompletes for the fall semester. Now he has to finish those as well as a full class load. But much like he did when playing, Gilchrese has one goal clearly in mind.
"There are a lot of people waiting at home for this phone call to tell them it's a go, come on up here [for graduation]," he said. "When I get a chance to walk across that stage, I'm just going to break down and cry. Because it was hard work and I know that's what my mother died to see: me walk across that stage."
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