THE GUY WITH THE GUITAR

Yes, you ARE my hero! For the longest time we struggled to find common interests and things we could do together. You were at work so much of the time and would come home exhausted and occasionally fall asleep with your head on your dinner plate. You described yourself as a Type "B" personality in a Type "A" job. Not too far off the mark, although you continued to push through being an internist for 40 years because you loved your patients. But to your credit, you signed up to coach little league and AYSO for our kids, joined Indian Princesses with our daughter, and even began helping with my children's theatre productions. You were the official rope puller for flying Peter Pan- three different rope systems that could easily end up in the fly loft, never to be used again during the production. You danced in the party scene of The Nutcracker in our local production, and practically got a hernia carrying one of the "dolls" offstage. She wasn't fat- she was all muscle! You made it look effortless.

Music has always been a deeply rooted part of your soul. Every year at Christmas time you would gather a ragtag group of singers and musicians, and with one or two rehearsals, we would tackle doing a marathon of caroling through the wards of our local hospital. Nearly 40 years of caroling until the pandemic shut us down, you were faithful to the patients and staff who worked through the holiday or were too sick to go home. I remember singing in the Recovery Room and a patient just waking from anesthesia was sure they had died and this was heaven with beautiful music. You really found music to be soothing after you destroyed your knee one night playing basketball. After two years of healing and having to come to the hard realization that sports were no longer a central part of your life, playing music gave you back a piece of your soul that had been neglected. We played at churches and picnics and bar mitzvahs and local coffee houses. Even with these successes, there was still a piece missing. You were so desperate for a son- and he came along from the most unexpected source.

One Christmas, we got a call from my best friend, Wendy, in Australia. Wendy had seven sons at that time. And the only quiet place in her house was the shower. And the "voice" in the shower kept telling her to have a baby for her friend... me. But she wanted one more child of her own. You almost gave up hope because Wendy was 40 at the time. "Fertile Myrtle" had one more child- the girl she had always longed for- and was ready to begin the journey to help us with having the child WE had always longed for. After finding a doctor in Australia who was willing to help us be cycled together for implantation, Wendy came to Los Angeles to hold my hand while the medical team removed my eggs and fertilized them in a Petrie dish, then I held her hand as they were implanted into her. You got to see your son as a zygote on a microscope slide before the implantation. How many fathers can say that! Wendy returned to Australia and called twelve days later to say she was pregnant! She came to the US at nearly seven months, bringing an ever-changing entourage of family and stayed until a couple of weeks after our son was born. And you were a changed man. So many hopes and dreams were wrapped up in that tiny baby with the big hands and feet, and a promise that you would keep- to bring him up to know God.

In 2005, you felt yourself being led to start a Christian music festival in our little town. After approaching the pastors in town about your idea- and they basically said, "Good idea, good luck!"- and without knowing how we were going to finance the event or who was going to perform, you took a deep breath and jumped! We invited volunteers to join us in planning the event and fed them dinner as a bribe to volunteer. Year one we had about six bands and one stage. The next year, we expanded to have a children's stage with music and entertainment just for them. The third year we had three stages for all ages and twice the turnout. Around the fifth year, it started raining the day before the concert and all night along, flooding parts of town. At 5am the phone started ringing off the hook- were we still going to hold the outdoor concert? Of course, you were! Nothing was going to stop you! As everyone gathered to put up the canopies and plug in the sound equipment, the rain seemed to stop. The forecast was for rain all day. We were the first performers on the stage. As we took our places, the rain began to patter down on us. You grabbed your guitar to protect it from the rain. We gathered in a circle and prayed for the rain to stop. And- the rain stopped! It stopped ALL DAY! That night on the news, the weatherman showed a "hole" in the clouds that surrounded the park where we were. It rained everywhere but there. We continued every year into the pandemic. Even then, you were determined to hold the concert- so, we went online with sixteen performers and had 15,000 views the first night! That outstripped any year prior by far!

All this is a long way of saying you never give up. Whatever gets in your way, you slowly but surely push it out of the way and get on with business. What a great example to set for your kids as well as your volunteers and patients.

When we got married, we were poor as dirt and in debt up to our eyebrows with student loans. I honestly never thought we would pay them off. And I really didn't care. As long as we had each other, we could weather any storm. And the storms came. We stood in the storms and let them wash over us and enjoyed the sunshine after.

"There's so much that I don't know, Still you teach me

In the darkness of despair, Your light reaches me

I don't know why Lord, you would want someone like me

But, oh Lord, I want to be with you

I was searching all my life, and You were always there

Waiting for me to find You

Now no matter where I go, I know You will be there

Standing beside me, standing..beside..me...."- Bill Fleury