Cheryl Tomasello has a simple Christmas wish: That her stepson, Michael Tomasello, be able to stay overnight in his father's home.
Her wish isn't so easy to grant.
Michael suffered a serious brain stem injury and was paralyzed when he was struck by a car on Nov. 15, 2004, outside the North Huntingdon home of his mother, Susanne Tomasello. Susanne and Brad Tomasello, Michael's father and Cheryl's husband, are divorced.
Michael spent two months in Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and six more months in The Children's Institute, a rehabilitation facility near Shadyside.
"He received his last rites, but he pulled through," Cheryl Tomasello said.
"He's never spoken again; he's never walked again," she said. "He's never acknowledged us again."
Michael, now 15, spends most of his time in a wheelchair. Although he can swallow pureed food, he relies on a feeding tube in his stomach for drinking. A shunt in his head drains fluid into his intestines. He sleeps in a hospital-style bed, and his parents use a specialized chair attached to a wall to bathe him.
Insurance allowed the Tomasellos to make Susanne Tomasello's North Huntingdon home accessible for Michael, but provided no such allowance for Brad Tomasello's home with Cheryl in Vandergrift.
Furthermore, the Longfellow Street house is sandwiched between two other homes and has a small first floor. Extensive ramps or lifts would be required to get Michael into the house, but even then it would be difficult to maneuver him around.
The house was built by Cheryl's grandfather 90 years ago.
"I've lived here for a very long time," she said. "I couldn't afford to live anywhere else.
"It feels like home, but there's one little thing missing," she said.
Cheryl Tomasello recently came up with the idea of converting a one-car garage in her small backyard into a place for Michael to stay.
The garage is little more than a wooden shed on a block foundation. But she dreams of how it might look fixed up with room for a hospital bed, shower stall and pull-out couch for her husband.
"It's not a big space, but it's a big enough space," she said. "We'd be able to take him on the weekends, give his mom a break."
She would line the building with windows so Michael could look outside and see her two dogs frolic in the backyard.
"Michael always liked to be outside," she said. "He loved the dogs."
Her brother, an architect, estimated it would cost $20,000 to remodel the garage. The Tomasellos are looking for ways to raise the money.
For three years, Cheryl Tomasello has organized the Make One for Michael charity golf tournament at Willowbrook Country Club in Allegheny Township. Although successful, the golf tournament takes a lot of work and money to pull off, she said.
Money raised was used for medical expenses not covered by insurance. The family paid for hyperbaric oxygen therapy with the hope the varying oxygen levels would stimulate Michael's brain, but there was little success.
"All the money was used to give Michael a chance," Cheryl Tomasello said. "I don't think there's been a stone unturned."
"We still have hope in our hearts that he's going to come back," said Susanne Tomasello.
But as hope for a recovery dims, Cheryl Tomasello is focusing on ways to make the family comfortable.
Brad Tomasello leaves home about 5 a.m. most days to see Michael before heading to work at the Westmoreland County Prison, where both he and Cheryl Tomasello are corrections officers.
After putting in a full shift, Brad Tomasello returns to his ex-wife's North Huntingdon home to help with Michael some more and visit his daughter, 10-year-old Gina.
Brad Tomasello said he usually stays overnight with Michael once a week and whenever his ex-wife is away.
He said being able to bring Michael to Vandergrift occasionally would ease the strain on the family.
"It isn't that I don't want to (bring Michael home); the house just won't work out that way," he said.
Susanne Tomasello, a native of Germany, said she returns home every few years to visit family, especially her ill mother. When she stayed in Germany for two weeks on a recent trip, Brad Tomasello stayed at her house the whole time.
"It would help out if Michael could spend time there," she said, adding that she is on amicable terms with her former husband and they jointly care for their children.
"We always want what's best for our kids," Susanne Tomasello said.
"If I couldn't have had both of my daughters with me, I don't know what I'd do," Cheryl Tomasello said of her now married children, Candice Geltz and Shauna Penska.
She wants to somehow give her husband the same experience: "The best gift I could give for Christmas is to bring this father and son together."
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