By Kathryn Moore
Staff Writer
Last Halloween was just another date on the calendar for Union alumnus Will Gray.
He had a CT scan performed in late September that he hoped would reveal the source of what he thought was a sinus infection.
When the doctor called with the test results on that cool Wednesday morning, Gray was unprepared for the news. Cancer.
The scan revealed a rapidly growing malignant tumor in Gray’s maxillary sinus under his cheek. It was beginning to invade his right eye socket.
On Nov. 27, the tumor was completely removed.
“They cut out my upper right jaw and all of those corresponding teeth,” said Gray on his blog, GoTeamGray.com. “They took my right sino-nasal cavity. They cut out my right eye and surrounding area on my face.”
Before the illness, Gray, a 2002 graduate, was a singer-songwriter living in Los Angeles, with his wife, Angie, a 2003 Union graduate.
Gray’s music is a mix of hip-hop and Americana, and companies such as MTV, Ford Motor Co., Playstation and Motorola have licensed his original music.
He has written songs for artists such as Cobra Starship and Blake Shelton. Gray also is director of the documentary, “Broke*,” which follows Gray through the recording of his debut album.
Gray has remained connected to his alma mater throughout the years, performing in Barefoots Joe with the band Gretel in February 2011.
He also performed during the Black History Month program in February 2009, and that same month he hosted a discussion on campus titled “The Modern Medici: Arts Patronage in a Brave New World.”
By January, the tumor had begun to grow back. Gray underwent simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation to fight the growth.
Biopsies and tests confirmed that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, lungs and several bones, including his sternum.
This widespread cancer is “non-curable,” said Gray’s doctors, meaning the 32-year-old may only have weeks to live.
Gray has said on his blog that his greatest source of strength comes from his wife.
Angie Gray’s Kappa Delta sorority sister, Elizabeth Straube, a 2003 Union graduate, said she has known the couple since her freshman year of college in 1999.
“I will never forget the day Angie ran into Will in the post office,” Straube said. “She was so nervous and started giggling, which is totally unlike her, when he struck up a conversation with her.”
The couple married in 2004 and has traveled all over the United States for Gray’s music career. Now, Angie Gray rarely leaves her husband’s bedside.
Hospice has come to assist in making Gray’s time at home as comfortable as possible. Friends from all over the country are flying to visit, offering them support through prayer, fellowship and monetary gifts.
In a video made for the Gray’s church, the couple give an interview about their journey. Gray’s dark, curly hair and brown skin contrast greatly with the huge white bandage covering his right eye.
His tall frame is thin and gaunt, and his voice rasps, sounding like he is using every ounce of energy to complete a sentence.
His wife sits beside him looking tired and weary and visibly tenses up when Gray begins to speak.
The interviewer asked him if he is angry with God for allowing him to be so sick.
“No, I couldn’t be,” Gray said. “I gave up the rights to my life when I said I was going to follow Christ. … I think that God loves me. He has a strange way of showing it.”
Straube said she has seen great strength from the couple’s attitudes during the last seven months.
“In that video interview, Will shares that anger was never an emotion he has experienced through this ordeal,” Straube said. “Angie has honored, cared for and loved Will the way Christ has called wives to love their husbands. Together, they are a beautiful example of Christ’s love. They are an incredible testimony of completely trusting and loving God.”
Tearing up, Gray said, “It doesn’t matter where you are in your faith journey … Just wait. Be patient. Because your story … Your story can change. Just the way mine has. Just the way Angie’s has.”
The couple have not given up hope that God will heal Gray’s broken body. Angie Gray writes on the GoTeamGray.com blog that this ordeal has tried her faith, but it is her husband who encourages her to be strong.
“Right now, Will is here,” Angie Gray wrote. “He is alive. He is living and loving and crying and laughing… So whether his last day is near or if his body begins to heal and his last day is years from now, I know we have the moment we’re in, and we want to live that moment well.”
