Life was difficult for Gian Ricci.
Born with a congenital disorder called chromosome 13 deletion, he was diagnosed with cancer in both eyes at 10 months old. As a teenager, he had low muscle tone and was short of stature. Tasks that “most of us take for granted, like climbing stairs or holding a pencil, were hard for ‘G,’ ” his mother, Jessica Faiola, said.
But Gian managed to spend about the last 10 years of his life attending Johnston schools, schools where he felt loved by fellow students, teachers, cafeteria servers and bus drivers, his mother said…