News
"Billy's Team Alpha" will join George Washington Bridge Walk to raise funds for Alpha-1 research
Staten Island Advance
GREAT KILLS, NY – In 1965, while waiting for her sister at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in St. George, Rose Kusack was approached by a stranger who asked her if she was stood up by a guy. She simply said no.
While on the ship to Manhattan, the same stranger approached her again and struck up a conversation. Ms. Kusack, at the time, said she sensed a strong feeling of familiarity with the man named William McClellan.
“We met for lunch that day,” said Rose, who now goes by Mrs. McClellan. “Forty-five years later, here I am without him.”
McClellan, 61, died in June 2001 from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder that can cause lung and liver disease in adults and liver disease in children.
Saturday, Rose McClellan and 29 others, including friends and family members who call themselves “Billy’s Team Alpha” after her late husband, will walk the George Washington Bridge in his honor, to help raise money for the research programs of the Alpha-1 Foundation.
