Sweet William

I love that little flower. Sweet William. I used to call our William that when he was little.

When he got the big job with the famous band, he was in awe of all the places he traveled and all the people he met. Very famous people. Since then, it has all become very ordinary. The famous have become friends. We recently watched as he had his photo taken with the president of the company who made his soundboard for their in-house magazine. He is comfortable being interviewed and we have read so many of those articles.

In the beginning though, we would get a phone call from him saying something like, “Guess where I am.” The one I still get a kick out of was on his first or second tour and they were in LA. He phoned. “You’ll never guess where I am. I am in the penthouse of the Chateau Marmont at a private birthday party for the guy on the cover of Rolling Stone (I think that was the magazine but may be wrong) this week.” He went on, “I am standing in the corner near a plant with a drink in my hand and the room is full of famous people. I keep looking around expecting to be thrown out!”

He got very used to hanging with writers, artists, musicians and movie stars.

In 2006 when I was declared permanently disabled and had to return my laptop to the school, I suddenly had no computer. Our finances where not the best as we had medical bills and were just beginning to realize that I had no income. For Christmas, my sweet William gave me an iBook G4 that I am still using today – I know that it is considered a dinosaur at this point.

When I said that he spent too much money, he commented, “No problem, I saved all my per diem money and bought it with that.” What that means is that he either didn’t eat or ate very cheaply and saved his food money from the tour to buy the computer for me. I have never been so touched by anything in my life.

Sweet William.