Wilfredo Gonzalez-Santos was one of the two sons of Iris Santos. His mother told us that Will enjoyed playing video games and cooking, something she taught him when he was 8 or 9 years old.

Will loved his friends and family, especially his mom. Iris said he was unashamed of their relationship, even though his friends may have teased him about being a “momma’s boy.” They would play basketball together even after he was grown.

When Iris was at the DMV renewing her license, the representative asked her if she would like to continue to be an organ donor, to which she replied, “yes.”

Will looked at her and asked her what that meant. Iris explained that if something were to ever happen to her, that she would like to help others by being an organ donor. When Will understood what it meant, he got very excited and said, “I want to be a donor.”

Will was excited about the idea of helping other people. He made friends everywhere he went. About 200 people attended his funeral and over 180 people viewed it online. After Will passed away, several people told Iris how he had impacted their lives.

We were proud to be able to be the stewards of Will’s gift. Will’s corneas were distributed internationally where over 10 million people suffer from corneal blindness primarily due to the shortage of available donated corneas for transplant.

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