Mr. Bill

Who was Mr. Bill? First of all, he's the guy sitting on the left-hand side of the picture. He was Bill Harrison a young man who as I remember was about 23 years old and was assigned to your Granddaddy's Air Force squadron when we were living at Yokota AB, Japan in 1961. He was a nice Christian guy and he wound up being our babysitter on many occasions. I was only about 9 years old and not old enough to babysit even though I was the oldest. Granddaddy was in the hospital at Tachikawa AB experiencing severe back problems and was there for several months - yes months, around seven if I remember correctly. The hospital was quite a distance away and naturally Grandmother wanted to go visit and spend as much time with him as she could. Since we had only been in country for about five months and not members of the Church at that time, Grandmother didn't know a lot of people, Mr. Bill either volunteered or was volunteered to babysit. He was great! He would help us with our homework; he would feed us our meals; he would take us to the movie. Mr. Bill loved to take pictures and developed his own and one day invited me to go to the base Hobby Shop and where he taught me how to develop pictures using a darkroom. What a great time we used to have doing that.

I could never describe who he was exactly. He wasn't like a big brother, he wasn't like an uncle - he was just Mr. Bill and even as I grew much older, he was still Mr. Bill. One day it came time for Mr. Bill to rotate back stateside and I remember us taking him to the airport thinking I'd never see him again. I loved Mr. Bill. He was always so much fun to have around and I was so upset to see him go.

As it worked out, Mr. Bill was sent to Japan once again and so he was back in our lives. The next time someone left, it was us. But, he showed up again when we were living at Eglin AFB, Florida near Ft. Walton Beach. I remember him showing up one time with a purple dune buggy and he took us to the beach and we rode up and down sand dunes for as long as he could stand it. Every time we saw Mr. Bill he always had some new and exciting car or piece of equipment. You never knew what to expect from him.

When I graduated from high school in Valdosta, guess who showed up again? Yep, Mr. Bill. He came for my graduation. Of course by this time he'd married and had children. He used to tell me that since he couldn't marry me (since I was way too young), he did the best that he could and married a wonderful woman named Carol. No matter what, I knew I could always count on Mr. Bill if I needed him and it didn't matter where he was.

One day many years ago, sometime in the 80's, maybe 90's, I was sitting at home when I got a phone call that Mr. Bill had died. I remember it was around July 4th and I knew I had to be at his funeral. (And you know how much I hate funerals)! So, without hesitation, your grandmother and I packed our bags and headed to Spartanburg, South Carolina to attend his funeral. I remember standing at the casket taking my last look at the man I had loved for the majority of my life. And, even though I was now a much older person with a child of my own, he was still and will always be Mr. Bill. Carol was standing next to me holding my hands and was telling me how much he'd love me and my family. Up until that point, I had known Mr. Bill longer than anyone outside of my family. He was the biggest non-family constant in my life and I did feel a loss at his passing. I remember the following Christmas that Carol wrote me a wonderful letter about Mr. Bill. I saved it somewhere because it was so special and hope to run across it sometime and share it with you too. So, that's the story of Mr. Bill.