JULY 20 • 2023 | 11
N
ick Gilbert climbed Masada.
Picture a giant plateau on the
edge of Israel’s Judean Desert,
overlooking the Dead Sea, about 1,300
feet straight up. The mountain is steep —
so steep you can’t just climb up the side,
but instead use switchbacks taking you up
the incline. There are over 700 steps and
endless rocky slopes, most of which have
no railing.
You have to start this hike at 4 a.m.
when it’s already 105 degrees outside,
both in order to catch the spectacular
sunrise when you reach the top, but also,
because after the sun rises, the tempera-
ture becomes unbearable and unsafe.
Everyone begins the trek exhausted and
in the pitch black.
Now imagine you’re working with
about 25% of your vision like Nick
Gilbert.
“Despite his limitations, Nick was one
of the strongest people I’ve ever known,”
said Temple Israel’s Rabbi Jennifer Lader,
who helped lead the Teen Mission trip
Nick was on in 2012. “Nick was not
someone who did things Nick did not
want to do. And if he didn’t want to climb
that mountain, he had a million outs. He
never took one.”
Nick climbed this literal mountain in
the dark. It took him a long time, longer
than others because he couldn’t see. He
climbed and climbed. He put one foot
in front of the other, encouraging people
who passed him, telling them they were
doing a great job.
When Nick reached the summit of that
mountain, there were 119 teenagers wait-
ing for him there.
“I swear, you have never heard the kind
of cheering and celebration that greeted
him when he reached the top,” Rabbi
Lader said. “It was incredible. Just abso-
lute love, pride and joy for him from these
kids, strangers and people who passed
him on the way up.”
When the cheering abated, and Nick
looked around drenched in sweat, he
turned to Rabbi Lader and said, “Do you
think they have Coke with ice at the gift
shop?”
That was Nick Gilbert, affectionately
known as “Gilly” to those 119 friends at
the top of the mountain and an infinite
number of others all over the world. He
was always himself — a person who met
every challenge head-on, who found
humor in the face of adversity, who val-
ued every moment he was blessed with
and every person he encountered, and
who touched the lives of countless others
because of how he lived his own.
A CHALLENGING DISEASE
Nicolas Manuel Gilbert was born July 21,
1996, to Jennifer and Dan Gilbert. He
passed away on May 6. He would have
celebrated his 27th birthday this Friday.
Nick was born with neurofibromatosis
(NF), a nerve disorder causing tumors to
grow throughout the body. Nick’s tumors
grew in his head. He was specifically
diagnosed with NF1, the most common
type of NF, which he was diagnosed with
at just 15 months of age after doctors
discovered an optic glioma (tumor on
the optic nerve). In the first grade, Nick
began to lose vision in his right eye. In an
attempt to save what vision was left, Nick
began 18 months of chemotherapy. Nick
underwent his first brain surgery shortly
after his 10th birthday, when another
tumor the size of a small orange was
found in his cerebellum. Soon after, he
began another 18 months of treatments to
keep the tumors at bay.
For the next 12 years, Nick was on and
off various treatments to slow the growth
of several tumors. Almost like whack-a-
mole, as soon as one would stop, another
would appear; chemo, radiation, MRI’s
and endless doctor’s appointments were
all part of managing the manifestations
of NF.
Nick gradually lost more of his vision as
the years went on. By the time he was of
driving age, Nick could see only shadows
out of his right eye with only a quarter
of his vision in his left eye. Legally blind,
Nick was unable to get his driver’s license
and could no longer play on the sports
teams that he loved. But he never com-
plained.
“He didn’t let this disease define him.
He demanded to be a regular guy, which
took a lot,” his father, businessman Dan
Gilbert, said. “He fought so hard physi-
continued on page 12
The Gilbert
family