BUFFALO, N.Y. — It is a story of finding inspiration in profound loss. A Grand Island mother has turned to a combination of finances and physique to remember and honor the son she lost in a motorcycle accident.
DeeAnn Dimeo is a professional vocalist, and when she takes the stage, she sings from her soul and from her heart. A lifetime of emotions comes through in every note and lyric she belts out. It's a life blessed with two children. She and her ex husband Will Tompkins were blessed with a daughter, Gracie and a son, William.
DeeAnn describes her son as a kind and beautiful soul and a smart and driven young man. William Tompkins, was a top-notch student at Canisius High School. That is where his perspective on life was changed through a missionary trip to Nicaragua. In 2015, his junior year, he went to help build churches. DeeAnn still has the scrap book which chronicled the trip. She read a quote from William.
"Between the workers and my family, I was able to observe poverty, insane work ethic and something I never expected, constant happiness," wrote William.
She says that the experience changed his life and gave him a new sense that if the people he was helping could possess that kind of spirit, he could do anything.
After high school he went onto James Madison University, where he discovered a new passion. DeeAnn remembers the first time she saw her son after he was away at college.
"I was in shock, he had a passion for body building, power lifting , and it became his way of life," said Dimeo.
He returned home and became an Exercise Science major at U.B. Graduating in 2021, he planned to take the world by storm, become a personal trainer and continue competing.
But all the plans and dreams, all the potential, were shattered on June 5, 2021 when he lost control of his motorcycle on a curve on Rt. 5 in Hamburg.
"When a parent loses a child, which I never understood until now, and I never want anyone to understand, they're in your mind 24/7," said Dimeo.
DeeAnn searched for meaning and purpose. She decided that one way for William's name, life and passion to live on, is through a scholarship at his alma mater. The scholarship would send another student on the same missionary trip that changed William's life.
The scholarship fund is now approaching $38,000. The goal is to get it up to $50,000 — the threshold for the scholarship to become endowed at Canisius High School, meaning it, and William's name, would live on in perpetuity.
There is a link to donate to the William Michael Tompkins Scholarship fund at the top of DeeAnn's website. Once you get to the Canisius page, you need to specify that your donation is for William's scholarship fund.
In the meantime, DeeAnn is also finding another way to lift herself, and plenty of iron, in her son's memory. She is training to compete in her first power-lifting competition this weekend.
She will put that training to the test Saturday, October 15 in The Powerlifting America Elite Classic at Kenmore Barbell and Fitness, where William trained. She'll be wearing William's lifting belt for luck and hearing his words ringing through her head.
"His big motto to me all the time was mom, no excuses. you can do it," said Dimeo.