Missing Billy

As I sit here, I try to think back.  I met Billy while he was still in high school.  His friends were my friends, and because my friend Emily and I were a little older and shared the rent on a house, we typically had lots of visitors.  Emily was dating Aaron Sanders, and I was dating Michael Williamson, both of whom Billy knew, either from school or from ‘around.’ Billy would grace us with his presence on occasion, and always be welcome, witty and wonderful to be around.  Emily and I were the hosts, but he seemed to be happy to provide entertainment.  He and ‘the guys’  -- Aaron, Dustin, Patrick, Damien, Michael, Rob, Jed and Reed and Laramey, (I have mostly guy friends) and a stream of others seemed to compete for laughter amongst the group.  I remember Billy being full of hardware J  I couldn’t imagine having so many piercings, but they suited him quite nicely.  I remember one particular night close to the end of high school for them.  They had their prom, and quite a few people—even some I didn’t know—came to our house for a get-together afterwards.  Many of the party-goers stayed the night at our house on couches, in chairs, pallets on the floor, etc.  Billy, however, ended up sleeping like a rock on the hardwood floor.  He started out his sleeping endeavor in the living room, but somehow ended up down the hall and around the corner in one of the bedrooms, snoring happily.  My friend Emily woke up at some point to use the bathroom and tripped over him and nearly face-planted in the hallway.  Neither of us will ever forget that!

Then I try to think forward.  I remember meeting Billy's wife for the first time.  I don’t remember exact details.  I remember it was back behind the glove factory on one of those side streets at a house.  I don’t remember why we were there.  I just remember thinking to myself “I really like her!”  Then, sometime later we (My husband and I) saw Billy and his wife in their car in the Leatherwood parking lot, and lo and behold, they had a baby boy – quite possibly the cutest kid I’d ever seen in my life.  I was so happy for Billy! 

Then I was shocked.  He told us he had cancer.  After that meeting, a long, long time went by before I heard anything about Billy again.  I thought about him and all the guys a lot as life happened along as is its habit to do.  I asked someone somewhere how Billy was, and they said better, and that he was working as a medic.  Awesome! I decided to look him up on the notorious Facebook spy network, and found that he was just as awesome and funny as ever, and that there was a new baby to adore there.  I loved how he called her Jack It seemed so endearing to have this beautiful girl with a beautiful name being called simply Jack.  I never got the chance to ask him why he called her that.  I would have loved to know the story.  There had to be a story.  With Billy, there was always a good story! 

I may not have had the in-between time with Billy that I would have liked, but that is actually true of many of my friends since the early days after high school.  Just because we were far apart doesn’t for a second mean that they weren’t thought of, missed, wondered about, loved, cherished for the memories they helped to make, and remembered for all the special things that made them who they were to us.  I feel honored to be even a small part of his full life, and I’m sorry that we lost him so soon.  But much can be learned from someone who was loved and who loved so much.  May God bless Billy’s family and his children and his many, many friends.  I hope that reading this will stir love and respect in the hearts of any who knew him.  It was certainly stirring in the writing.  I will miss you, and I am not alone.