Richard Williams Tribute from Henekis Williams Stoddard

As I grieve my father’s death, the many ways that my heart has always honored him rise to the surface of my being and a smile is put on my face. My father was captured when I was just three years old and yet he continued to raise me through the miles and through the bars with grace, wisdom and the deepest love. My dad and I laughed together always. We gave that to each other–one of the many things that he did not allow them to take away. He prepared me for our lives together, gave me a political scope with which to view the world, sent me flowers when I graduated, told me the story of my birth (every year), consoled my broken heart and prepared me for his death. In these actions he taught me how to live will without dependency on circumstance. He taught me that all of our actions must be guided by the deepest love and the passion to make change. He taught by making his life an example of how it could be done. In these lessons I realize that we can possess something that can never be taken away, something that makes us stronger in this struggle. Of all the ways my father has shown his strength and served as a role model of personal responsibility and love–he shined when it came to being a father, a comrade and a friend. In losing one of the dearest loves of my life, I find that beneath my great sorrow lies an even greater inspiration. He wove his spirit into mine and in that he is still alive.

Venceremos–Henekis Williams Stoddard