Walt’s Life Started Early ...

By Rebecca Mahoney

Wal­ter Williams is my neigh­bor and my friend. I got to know Walt a few years ago. He would drive around the neigh­bor­hood in his big white car, a per­fect fit for his big wide smile and lanky frame. I’d be walk­ing my laps, and he would stop the car to say hi. Through our brief mobile inter­ac­tions, we dis­cov­ered we shared a few com­mon­al­i­ties; he’s a writer, and writ­ing is my pas­sion too. We also share the label of wid­owed. Both of us under­stand what it’s like to walk around with a pre­cious part of your soul so far away from you. I’ve lived in the neigh­bor­hood for a long time, and it sad­dens me some­times that we didn’t con­nect years ago. I missed out on meet­ing his soul­mate, Lucy, and a lot of great sto­ries that make up Walter’s daily life. Another good les­son in the impor­tance of get­ting out there, extend­ing our­selves and con­nect­ing with others.

Walt Williams turns 90 on July 9th. What a great month for this patriot and for­mer sol­dier to have been born! He’s a for­mer POW and sur­vivor of WWII and I really don’t think I know a more patri­otic per­son. He could have allowed his expe­ri­ences to leave him bit­ter, but Walt’s humil­ity and grat­i­tude at the priv­i­lege of being a cit­i­zen of the United States of Amer­ica, shines. He wrote a cathar­tic book about it instead called, “For You the War is Over.” His love of coun­try and alle­giance is one of many qual­i­ties I admire so much. It’s just one of many lay­ers, that make up Wal­ter Williams. The man has the curios­ity of Mark Twain, the loy­alty of a Cleve­land Indi­ans fan, the bright, quippy humor of Bill Cosby, and has had enough life expe­ri­ences to fuel his own tele­vi­sion mini-series. Hav­ing the same curi­ous nature and sense of adven­ture, I was drawn to him from my first “Wednes­day with Walt” which really turned into a marathon four hour gab session.

As a child he accom­pa­nied his grand­fa­ther, a physi­cian, on house calls, sold mag­a­zines to Bishop Brown, cul­ti­vated his cre­ativ­ity by lis­ten­ing to sto­ries on radio, mar­ried a real women (and lady) who didn’t just bring home the bacon; Lucy shot, skinned and pre­pared the rab­bit all by her­self, no help needed. What a lucky guy, and he knows it. I feel priv­i­leged to be able to hear Walt’s sto­ries of the era he grew up in and I sit by his side, like an enthralled lit­tle kid, dream­ing of a time before the inter­net, and so many of the mod­ern con­ve­niences we have today that seem to have stolen bits of kin­ship, team­work, cre­ativ­ity, giv­ing, self­less­ness, and the real, deli­cious juici­ness of life.

Here are some more elu­sive things that you should know about him that prob­a­bly wouldn’t show up on Walt Williams resume. He’s a magi­cian and has trav­eled across the coun­try, per­form­ing with his daugh­ter. He served as Inter­na­tional Pres­i­dent of the Inter­na­tional Broth­er­hood of Magi­cians and has unselfishly ded­i­cated time to teach­ing the art of con­jur­ing and sleight of hand to a num­ber of bud­ding magi­cians. He lost his best friend and love of his life a few years ago, but hasn’t allowed his grief to over­ride his mem­o­ries and grat­i­tude for the full life they shared. He’s kept his heart open to fam­ily, friends, neigh­bors, and “adopted” daugh­ters. He’s a very proud grandpa to an amaz­ing and accom­plished grand­daugh­ter. He says yes to every­one. I can’t tell you the num­ber of times I have been there when folks have called for his help. He vis­ited a young woman, con­fined to a nurs­ing home for most of her young adult life, every sin­gle Sun­day, until her recent death He makes a mean rhubarb crum­ble. He is devoted to his church and God. He vehe­mently believes in the per­sonal free­doms our coun­try was founded on. He’s curi­ous about the para­nor­mal and loves a good mys­tery. He has pub­lished sev­eral books, and really should have been a pro­fes­sional pho­tog­ra­pher or a pho­to­jour­nal­ist at the very least. Award win­ning art­work graces his liv­ing room walls. I think National Geo­graphic would have gladly picked him up! Best of all, his daugh­ter, who lives thou­sands of miles away, calls him every day, which speaks vol­umes for his par­ent­ing and how much he is loved. I could go on. But, as for all great men, well, there needs to be a lit­tle mys­tery for oth­ers to unravel.

Recently, Walt called me and said his writ­ing muse had left him and he needed some direc­tion. I knew that wasn’t the case, but that is how Walt is; polite; because in fact, it was the other way around. I needed some inspi­ra­tion. So, we chat­ted, and I casu­ally sug­gested he might write the sto­ries he has been relay­ing to me, cre­ate his mem­oir, if for no one else for his beloved daugh­ter, Car­olyn to trea­sure some­day. I was hon­ored to see he has taken my advice. He started his mem­oir. The title… Walt’s Life Started Early.

This amaz­ing man’s life needed to start early in order to pur­sue his end­less curiosi­ties and adven­tures. The world needs his kind of light to shine Happy Birth­day, my dear friend. May your story con­tinue for many more years and your epi­taph read.…..

Walt’s Life Ended Late.

Posted by Guest 2 Columnist on Jul 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.