Bill

What a guy! My few words to summarize the life of our good friend, brother, father, husband, uncle, grandfather.
First, I present to you a few of the items and artifacts that many of us received over the years from Bill and Jean. I think they switched off and on, and Jean loved it when it was Bill's turn to come up with the gifts.
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One statue that Bill worked on was Our Lady of the Broken Nose. This statue stands in the middle of the South end of Albany in a small shrine outside St. Ann's Church. John Kirwin was pastor and expressed a desire that this image of Mary have a proper nose. It had been damaged by vandals. I mentioned it to Bill, and John noticed that something different was going on with the nose; and gradually, over several weeks, Our Lady's nose was healed. John figured Bill had something to do with it, but never caught him in the act. It seems that Bill would go there early in the morning, do some work, and then go to his work at the State. He did his work with out fanfare, quietly; you learned what he was doing only by asking him questions which he answered, sometimes briefly, but often with longer explanations, punctuated by "You know?"
He had to go back and redo the work a second time... that nose was a great target.
And I remember the puzzle he put together after the shrine of our Lady of Fatima  at St. Patrick's was rendered into rubble... he had a bucket for each of the figures pieces, carefully collected all of them, glued them together, and fabricated what he need until the shrine was good as new and ready for devotion. It was  a labor of love and devotion for him, and he did it to perfection.
As I read through the obituary the other day, there was a lifetime of accomplishments, and  then "Most of all..."   I thank Rob for these observations about family and Bill. The night of Bill's passing he noticed that no one in the living room at the family home was related by blood, yet they were family, and Bill was an only child, so there were no blood relatives on that side of the family. He fashioned a family with the love of his life, Jean, his adopted daughters, Jen and Michelle, their husbands, their children. In one summer, he went from having one grand child to having five. He had extended family in his brothers and sisters in law, nieces and nephews. All this through a marriage. He helped to build the family by his generosity of time, talent, love, service, and he talked up family whenever he had the opportunity. I think for him, family resembled a flowing river, fed by many streams, the river invigorated by the many rivulets  that emptied into it. And it all went into the family, including good times and bad times, hurt feelings and embarrasments, and we hung together, and we love.
And now to his philosophy of life, which is carved in the mantel surrounding the fireplace at Mike's house. Bill was a crew member when that was built. He carved shamrocks for unity, hearts for love, oak leaves for strength and a dove for peace... and all was connected by faint lines resembling streams, flowing and connecting. He knew the virtues that made life worthwhile.
We thank him and bid him bon voyage and he lives with us.