Copyright 2004 Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee)
June 14, 2004 Monday
Five-star Edition
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B3
LENGTH: 672 words
HEADLINE: Man with ALS living, not just surviving
BYLINE: BY BOB FOWLER, fowlerb@knews.com
DATELINE: OAK RIDGE

Trapped in a body wracked by a terrible disease, Bill Cosson's curiosity and courage remain unfettered.

Even his existence is testimony to an unflagging spirit. Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease at age 24, Cosson was only supposed to live 3 years.

He's outlived by 15 years the average lifespan of a person with the paralyzing ailment.

And he remains interested and involved in life -- keeping informed and planning projects, including the restoration of the sports car of his youth.

ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

That Yankee Hall of Fame baseball player was claimed by the fatal ailment, which attacks nerve cells and pathways in the brain and spinal cord.

When those cells die, voluntary muscle control and movement dies with them, according to the ALS Web site.

Although the body withers, the mind remains sharp and alert.

Cosson's condition has stabilized, but at an extreme plateau: He's been rendered almost completely paralyzed by the devastating disease and is unable to talk.

He was, as he says in a poem he wrote 16 years ago, "struck down by fate's stray arrow.''

Within the space of a few months "it was if I had changed from a 23-year to a 103-year-old,'' he wrote in a column for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Cosson went from being an athlete and band member to wheelchair bound, his muscles stilled and his speech increasingly difficult and then, impossible.

"It's amazing that he has had the courage to battle it like he has,'' said his dad, Ernie Cosson, retired from teaching Spanish and coaching football at Oak Ridge High School.

Bill Cosson's eyes and a special computer are now his links to the outside world. Propped up in a chair, his neck raised by a special brace, he blinks for yes; moves his eyes sideways for no.

His right foot rests on a blue rectangular mat, the equivalent of a mouse pad wired to a special computer.

By tapping out directions on the mat, he can access the Internet, write messages and use special software to painstakingly create a spoken message.

Armed with that high-tech gear, and with the help of his dad, mother Janet Cosson and caretaker Les Patterson, Bill Cosson has finished overseeing a labor of love: the complete restoration of his first car, a classic MGA Mark II convertible that's his age -- 42.

His foot barely moving, Cosson prepares a message that's converted by computer to the spoken word: "I had been looking for a convertible for a long time, and I saw the car in Bargain Mart. We went down to see it the next day, and it was love at first sight.''

Bill was 17 years old when he paid $2,200 for the sports car. He drove it during his years at Middle Tennessee State University and until shortly before the onset of his ailment.

For 15 years afterward, the car remained in the family garage, slowly rusting into disrepair.

It was Bill's idea to have the car restored, his dad said.

"Bill planned the whole thing,'' Ernie Cosson said.

Bill Cosson inventoried what was needed, hired a contractor for the renovation and ordered the necessary replacement parts from a company in California.

That first contractor took two years to dismantle the car -- and leave it in pieces. Disgruntled, Bill Cosson contacted Oak Ridge resident Warren Sisson to take over the project, and the work began in earnest.

"He (Bill) would have his caretakers deliver notes to Sisson telling him just how he wanted the car restored,'' Ernie Cosson said.

Bill Cosson oversaw all the fine points of the restoration, down to the shiny black paint job, the red leather bucket seats, the tiny rearview mirror mounted atop the middle of the dashboard.

The four-cylinder MGA is occasionally taken out for a spin.

"It's fun to drive,'' said Ernie Cosson. "It's an eye-opener. People turn and look at it.''

Now, with that project complete, music is on Bill Cosson's mind. He's planning a return to an earlier love -- composing music using his computer and music software.