Nicholas Lakharam, 1999-2011

Kind, courteous, beautiful and respectful. Those were just some of the dozens of adjectives used to describe Nicholas Lakharam, a 12-year-old from North Valley Stream who died on Dec. 16 at home, surrounded by family, after fighting bone cancer for a year and a half.

“He’s a beautiful child, an amazing child, angelic in every way,” said Jean Lowery, the nurse at Howell Road School, who knew Nicholas since he was in kindergarten. “He captured your heart. He captured mine.”

Nada Tannen, who retired as the school’s librarian in 2010, said she had the pleasure of seeing Nicholas once a week for six years. She saw his desire to learn, his curiosity and his ability to get along with all of his classmates. “He was the kind of kid that every teacher would like to have 30 of,” Tannen said.

Noele Villa, Nicholas’s fourth-grade teacher, described him as a happy-go-lucky child and a student who is easy to remember and hard to forget. She noted that he was a Student Council representative that year, and took his responsibilities seriously.

“He was a just a very nice boy who was well-liked by everyone,” Villa said. “What a great kid. He will be missed greatly.”

Services were held Monday morning at the Towers Funeral Home in Oceanside.

Nicholas, born in Queens on Oct. 1, 1999, to Raj and Bibi Lakharam, learned he had bone cancer in fifth grade, and had been undergoing treatment for about a year. He was unable to attend school as a sixth-grader, but received home tutoring and graduated with his Howell Road classmates. He was officially a student at Memorial Junior High School this year, and Principal Anthony Mignella said that a schedule had been made up for him. But because of his illness, he never started classes there.

Support from school

Last February, Howell Road held a fundraising dance and carnival to raise money for Nicholas’s family and to help offset his medical expenses. The event, organized by a group of teachers and attended by more than 400 people, raised nearly $8,000.