-
Missing my “tocayo”
I have waited so long to add my words to this wonderful homage to Bill. I do so today because Bill has been much on my mind. I think he is nudging me to “get on with it.” My name is Guillermina, which is Spanish for Wilhelmina, which is the feminine of William. My siblings…
-
It has taken me all this time
It has taken me all this time since William O. Goggins passing to say something. I do not take death well. It is especially difficult to remember and say good-bye to someone who loves life and who you love and respect for the fact of their earthly existence that fills the world with love and…
-
Headline TK
I wish Bill was here to give me a smart and simple introductory sentence. I wish Bill was here to help me decide which of our thousand stories to tell first. I wish Bill was here to help me not think so much about what I’m typing but more about what I’m trying say. I…
-
Great editor, great person
I was thinking of Bill this morning, because as it happened, I needed to use “hip-hop” in something. And if you were to ask me to describe William O. Goggins, I’d tell you he was a person who could and in fact did get worked up over whether or not hip-hop should be hyphenated. And…
-
Thanks, Bill.
It was an August Sunday in Bolinas. I slowly walked down the now familiar aisle directly behind the church; head down and fixated on my shoes as they crunched through the gravel. I stopped at plot 154. I stood there… Consumed by grief, by the seemingly overwhelming circumstances that were enveloping my life – in…
-
A Night To Remember
At the request of Bill’s family I am making an entry (verbatim) of the thoughts written down in my card of condolence, intended originally to be quite short, but for reason as explained subsequently I added later more in light of an unexpectred adventure: (after the preprinted wording of the card (“May the peace of…
-
Rattling Your Cage
It’s still on my calendar: “October 4, 2005, from 10 to 11am, Bill Goggins”. He came to meet with me and my coworkers at my new job. He stayed an extra hour just talking to the two heads of my small firm. They were dazzled by him, and afterwards rushed to my desk to thank…
-
New Year’s Message from Billy’s Family
A few days after Billy suddenly collapsed near the end of the July 30 San Francisco Marathon Benefit for Cancer Research, his niece Lina Rose (7) entered the doorway of our home in Mill Valley, stopped, stuck her arms up in the air and proclaimed “Wow. It’s just like Uncle Bill is alive and living…
-
For Bill
As I read these posts, I am moved by how others were also touched by the phrase taken by angels. Taken by angels is a nice way of sayingthat it seemed unusually severe and perverseto stop a man in a race at the 24th mile. The chairs in the café are still as we left…
-
Crossing paths with Bill
I worked very briefly as a freelance copyeditor at Wired way back in 1997. Bill was the only one there who took the time to talk to me about anything other than work. I ran into him about a year and a half ago, and he remembered me before I said a word to him.…