Where there's a Will, there's a way!
I first met Will as a pudgy, adorable and determined first grader when he and his parents came to the door of my classroom at Nursery Road Elementary. He crawled right under my heart that year -- he was eager to learn, inquisitive and VERY talkative. That first year was a learning experience for us both and at the end of that year, Bill and Kathy called a meeting to discuss second grade but they changed horses on me mid-stream--they decided to let Will do first grade again and they asked me to teach him again. According to them, we had already established trust in each other and I had learned how best to handle him. He learned what I would and would not allow. I have never taught a child for two years in a row because usually parents want to try someone new for their child, but Bill and Kathy thought that now Will and I understood each other.
That second year he wormed his way right into my heart. Lord, I loved that child! We got through that year just fine and he learned to read, write, and do math right along with the others in the class. He passed on through a couple more grades, all the time coming back to my classroom to say hello and keep in touch. But about fourth grade or so, Kathy called and asked me to tutor Will every week and we formed a new relationship. During those years I had to learn all kinds of tricks to keep him focused on the task at hand – snacks, trips to my husband’s garden to pick tomatoes, playing with the dog – anything to get him to focus on his work. What he wanted to do most was just talk. He was interested in other people. His determination to succeed grew as the years progressed and his successes bred more success. Yes, where there’s a Will, there’s a way!
In those years we talked about hunting, clay pigeon shooting, his cute little cousins, aunts and uncles, and wonderful trips he went on with his family. We talked about his health, his doctors’ visits, and the bullying he endured at school. He was part of my family. Will and my husband began discussing Braves baseball and Carolina football—you see, he was a Gamecock before he switched teams on us.
Will graduated high school and went to college and eventually moved to Florida. He still called every few weeks to check in on me. He had so many stories about college, his triumphs and his failures, his garden with those pesky armadillos, and his diagnosis of emphysema. He took that really hard. Every time I hung up the phone, I would tell my family, “Lord, I love that child!”
The years flew by and Will faced many roadblocks, a gloomy medical diagnosis as a young child, painful surgeries, and numerous doctors’ visits and many medicines. Any one of those things would bring a lesser man down, but not Will. He had something not detectible by medical tests – grit and determination, and very special parents, Bill and Kathy Courtney. You see – where there’s a Will, there’s a way!
I was proud of Will so many times; how he handled all those roadblocks and just found another way, how he kept in touch with his friends and family, how he stood up to bullying in school, how he graduated from high school and went on to college, which was a feat after Bill and Kathy got his diagnosis in first grade. No one thought that would ever be a possibility.
But the proudest I ever was of Will was when he called to tell me he had joined a church, given his life to Christ and he was saved! When Will slipped into the waiting arms of Jesus, I am sure he talked and talked and talked!
As the song by Mercy Me says:
“I can only imagine what my eyes will see, when your face is before me,
I can only imagine what it will be like, when I walk by your side.
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing Hallelujah; will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine!”
Revelation 21:4 says, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain.” What a promise! I will miss you, Will, my friend!
~ Jane Davis, Teacher
He Was Like a Brother, Only Better
Hi, I’m Missy, I work with Will’s Dad and have basically been adopted by Will’s family, which is a blessing to me and to my family, knowing the Courtney’s are right up the road looking out for me. Everyone knows Will is an only child but I am proud when folks consider us like brother and sister. I was texting my mom this week, missing Will, and she said “he was like a brother, only better because he was also such a good friend to you.”
I’ve only gotten to know Will in the last 3 years since I’ve been back to Gainesville but he became a super important part of my life very quickly. He taught me to shoot and I taught him to bowl. I am not a good shooter and he is not a good bowler but we had so much fun trying.
I tutored Will on occasion and he was the student I never was – he was prepared and disciplined, he wanted to learn anything and everything he could about any subject in academia or real life. He had such respect for knowledge and everything he knew, he learned because his family, especially his Mom and Dad, believed in him, nurtured him, and gave him every opportunity to become the man we all were lucky enough to know. You couldn’t have a conversation with Will without hearing about something that Mama or Papa did or thought or told him about. He loved his family without end and was so proud of them. I could never get Will to park in the visitor spots at our building and come in the front door. He always had to park around back in his dad’s reserved spot and then have me walk down to get him in the back door – his dad could do no wrong and he wanted to be just like him.
Will’s mom is a special lady and Will wasn’t shy to tell you so. Will could talk to his mother about anything. They had one of the most genuine and trusting relationships I have ever witnessed. He found absolute pleasure doing stuff for and with his mom…other than maybe weeding the garden. He shopped for her Christmas star weeks or months early each year, anticipating the look on her face when he gave it to her. He loved when Mama went shooting or worked in the garden with him because that meant he could show her first-hand how well he could do and she could dote all over him, which she always did.
Will has texted me from Granddaddy’s on a tractor or in the woods, he’s texted from Busch Gardens with Aunt Julie and the kids, on his way to Outback with Grammie, from Ag Econ Club meetings, from the bowling alley between classes, from his bike in the middle of a bike ride, from his garden or the garden section of some store: he was so much fun to keep up with. I know you all had these wonderful interactions with Will as well, on text or Facebook, and I hope you got to see his cheery face in person sometimes too.
He often texted me or came by the office to study. He knew the material, but I thought maybe he needed just a little bit of extra confidence before the test. I thought I was boosting him but he would always tell me “yes, I know, I’m ready” – I never quite understood it but it worked because he was excelling in all his classes. He was so smart and he was so committed. I haven’t seen his feet touch the ground since I got that email that said “YES!!! I got into UF.”
I took Will to UF orientation, it was 40 degrees out and raining, we had forgotten our umbrella in the car, I wore a sweater but Will was in a polo shirt and shorts and still insisted we take the hour-long outdoor campus tour. I haven’t seen him walk as fast as he did to find the ID place and get his Gator One card – that made it official, he was a Gator student and he was ready. I made him promise me that he wouldn’t commit to any clubs or volunteering on orientation day and he appeased me…but only for that day. He took off from Day 1 at UF wanting to be involved in everything, meet everyone, and be everywhere.
Will had the best outlook on life of anyone I know. He lived every moment. His hip had been bothering him and he would say “I know it hurts but I can’t stop living my life, I have to have a little fun.” We often talked about life stuff, about family and friends, about girls, about school, about jobs and future choices to make. Will never worried about what would come next, he prayed and he trusted that the Lord would guide him and put him where he was supposed to be, when he was supposed to be there. He made decisions not only for himself but for everyone he would impact. He considered others more often than himself, he did more than he had to do, and he loved without condition. I admire Will and when I question what I should do or where I should be, I can only hope I make my decisions for all the right reasons and be as good of a person and a son, grandson, nephew, cousin, and friend as Will has been to us.
I have taken this opportunity to speak longer that I probably should have because I was really asked to read a prayer that Will wrote. Will’s Dad was moving his truck the other day and found his bible with this little card inside. His prayer, simple as it is, took my breath away and his family and I would like to share his thoughts with you today.
"As I am struggling to make a decision with school, please Lord, guide me through. It’s a tough time for me right now. My parents, Mom especially, had her mind set on me doing Radiology. Please help her to get through this. Please help us as a family, Lord, I ask that you guide me in whatever it may be that I choose to do. Show me the way, show me the light – Lord. I have my mind set on Ag. Lord, I ask you, is it what you want me to do? I know you have given me a talent, I want to use it, but do you want me to do it?"
~ Missy Shelley, Friend (aka Big Sister)
Nothing Gold Can Stay
"Do not forget to entertain strangers. For by so doing, some have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13:2
I don’t remember much of my childhood without Will. I think I met him in 1st grade, but time is beautifully blurry through those younger years, and we may have met years before that. What I do remember is always having a wonderful friend in Will – someone that I know would sit beside me at lunch, miss me if I was out of school sick one day, and talk to me when no one else was around. You see Will and I had a Forrest Gump and Jenny kind of relationship – although Will was brighter than Forrest and I certainly have never been as wild as Jenny. But he and I were deep-rooted friends. There for each other no matter what came our way.
I remember one particular day in 2nd grade when my dad came to eat lunch with me. Will and I normally sat together, and he decided that this day would be no different. When we arrived in the lunch room I sat at the end of the table, my dad sat to my right, and Will sat to the right of him. Anyone that was lucky enough to know Will knows that the boy was born with the gift of gab…and on the day, gab he did. After about 10 minutes in the lunch room listening to him chat incessantly to my father, I broke down in 7-year-old-sobs. Of course Will meant no harm. Bless his heart; I really don’t think he could help himself. Someone so full of life and energy just has to share it with others. But on this day, in that lunch room – I wanted to talk to my dad! My dad quickly took note of my crocodile tears and segued into conversation with me. Immediately, all was right with the world. And of course I didn’t hold it against Will for a second. To this day I believe that was the only time he and I didn’t see eye to eye on a situation.
He and I lived about two streets away from each other, so during the years when we were too young to drive we would just walk between houses to spend time together. He would stop by to tell me about his adventures out west with his family. About the times that he saw amazing wildlife in its natural habitat, or the once-in-a-lifetime experience he had when he convinced his mother to let him paraglide off a cliff. Lord knows, his desire for adventure never failed. Will was also known to tell a story or two that most folks would consider private. If he ever began a story with “Now, my mom told me not to tell anyone this…” you knew it was going to be a good one. The most memorable story he told me came from a conversation he had with his granddaddy. Will was always an opinionated soul, and he wasn’t afraid to tell it how he saw it. He said his granddaddy told him once that he would argue with Jesus himself if he had the opportunity. (Of course he wasn’t supposed to tell me this!) But I highly doubt that Will is arguing with the Lord now. In fact, I’m pretty sure they agree on everything these days. Unless Carolina is playing Florida…then who knows what side they’re on.
Will and I remained close friends far after our early school days. He moved to Chapin, SC as I was headed to the University of South Carolina. We chatted online quite often, and met for lunch to keep in touch. When Will received his license in the fall of my freshman year, he was just itching to pick me up for one of our lunch meetings. I was a late bloomer myself and didn’t even have my driver’s license at the time, so you can imagine my horror at the thought of riding in the car with someone who had waited just as long as I had to get their license. I tried my darnedest to figure out a way to just meet Will at the restaurant, but he had other plans…and an impression to make! So sure enough, Will arrived at my dorm to pick me up for lunch, proud as a peacock in his white Ranger truck. We made it safely to our destination (HALLELUJAH!), but boy was I nervous!
We continued our tradition of lunch dates when he and his family moved to Florida. If they ever came back to visit family they would come back to visit me, too. We ended up making a tradition of going to Macaroni Grill for our Christmas celebration. I have a furry polar bear card that Will gave me on our last meeting, tucked in my scrap book full of memories – in it, his boyish handwriting thanking me for being a great friend throughout the years. Each time I look back at those words I hope he realized that his friendship taught me more than I ever could’ve imagined; that in actuality he was the great one, the kind of friend that truly never failed. Little did I know that one short year after receiving this card, on a snowy afternoon in December, his mom and I would sit at that same booth continuing the Christmas tradition in his earthly absence…a bittersweet and cozy memory that will stay with me forever.
Will was surely one of a kind. He was an interactive life lesson that the Lord placed in my presence for 17 wonderful years. His mother and father instilled in him amazing qualities that we all should strive to have. Will taught me compassion and patience; he taught me about dedication and really working hard to keep a friendship strong; he showed me the true definition of perseverance in hardships; he showed me how to trust the Lord with everything, and know that everything works towards the Lord’s purpose for your life.
I actively look for reasons to tell people about Will in my life these days. I love sharing his no-holds-barred stories and reliving our childhood memories together. I hope to pass someone on the street that reminds me of Will, just so that I can get a worldly ‘glimpse’ of my sweet friend and pretend that he’s still on earth for a moment. And thankfully, the Lord allows me to dream of him every once in a while, too, which is like bringing him back to life for a flash – giving me just enough to hold onto until I meet with him again.
A poem by one of my favorites, Robert Frost, was comforting to read when I faced the difficulty of losing Will. It reinforces the idea that death is simply a part of life, although it is certainly not the end. And considering Will’s love for nature and his garden, I don’t believe I could have said it better myself –
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
~ Rebecca Benton, Life Long Friend