He loves me, I love him. When she sees him, she stretches out her arms. He lived most of the next 41 years as a kind of island. PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. "That's still something, right, on the table that you and I might do?" They tried to understand his rages, and why they'd even been born. It was everything against his grain to succumb to this outside influence of children. Every now and again, she sighs. "I think he knows," Eric replied.The house felt different than before, desolation replaced by hope. "It was a bright, sunny day, and I was there. Ted drove her back to her mom's house in Miami once, and when they arrived, it transpired that Bobby-Jo had forgotten her keys, and Ted, raging, kicked her out of the car and left her standing alone there in the dark, exactly as his mother had done to him.Instead of Bobby-Jo becoming the first Williams to graduate from college, which Ted wanted as desperately as he wanted to hit a baseball, she got pregnant. In the past few years, she studied nursing, and even that hasn't been enough, so now she's studying biology and statistics, prerequisites for graduate school. Standing around the kitchen, she and Eric told the story of what happened when she opened her letter. First, he needed a heart catheterization, and doctors worried he might not survive even that preliminary procedure. It was a do-over. It makes me angry, of course. Terrified of Ted raging at them, John-Henry quietly fed her ice chips and got her ginger ale when she vomited from sun poisoning. She's a young woman living among retirees with only a few friends. He had a cousin who was murdered by her husband, and a criminal brother who died young and angry. ", He called Claudia a "c---" too, and a "fat bitch," and told John-Henry he was the "abortion I wanted." She got it as a gift. At Ted's place in Islamorada, in the Keys, she got a terrible sunburn. Becoming a man in his father's eyes? We seek to challenge power and encourage democratic debate The US snow crab harvest has been cancelled after billions of them went missing from the waters around Alaska. Every patient who walked through the door would get treated like Ted Williams. He was a fantastic parent," Claudia Williams said. Ted's health declined, more every day. She sighs hard; rattling almost, jagged on the edges, a noise so full of pain that people who hear it feel compelled to protect her. When you're that focused you're not really a great father. ""I'm not taking this s---," Ted would growl, seething. she said, and John-Henry argued some more. After nearly three years, China has abandoned key parts of its flagship zero-covid policy. The timing never worked for her because she struggles to look past her obsessions: nursing school and a book she wrote about her father, which started as a stocking stuffer about lessons she learned and turned into a cathartic exploration of the person she's still trying to be. "The literature John-Henry took home from Alcor, one of the country's two major cryonics companies, worked in his imagination; he purchased every book they offered, according to credit card receipts. I left wondering what kind of life awaited her. How an embroidery charity beloved by its members tore itself apart at the seams. SHE AND ERIC fell in love during the horrible siege after they froze her father, who died of cardiac arrest almost two years after signing the note. Are todays children part of a giant, unplanned experiment? Seeing the joy she brought to the elderly, long her favorite group of people, reminded her of an old man she treated as a student nurse. Other times he'd listen. He'd be waiting for me right here. she says, sounding vulnerable and shaky, like she's grasping for something beyond not only her reach but even her ability to name it. she sobs.There is a possibility.Before John-Henry died, he froze some of his sperm, and as executor, she controls it. A young John-Henry poses with his father during Red Sox spring training. Articles by Claudia Williams on Muck Rack. She didn't want to waste another moment. Continue reading Taking a moment to remember . Three dads came together this year in the saddest of circumstances; they all had daughters whod taken their own lives. "It wasn't until I cared for my elderly father as his health declined," she wrote on her application, "that I discovered my true calling.". Matthew dAncona pieces together what happened. Finally she said yes. John-Henry rubbed Vaseline on her shoulders and told her not to cry.A young John-Henry poses with his father during Red Sox spring training. "I don't know who has to say, 'You did well,'" says Abel, who was the Williams family attorney when he met Claudia. Now led by Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., MLB currently features record levels of labor peace, competitive balance and industry revenues, as well as the most comprehensive drug-testing program in American professional sports. She was trapped in his house by television trucks and reporters shouting questions. OL' TED WILLIAMS, HUH? Claudia and her brother, John-Henry, supported cryonics; older half-sister Bobby-Jo wanted her father cremated and sued her siblings in the courts and fought them in the media. Driving back from visiting Ted's compound in Canada, Dolores and John-Henry stopped in Maine to spend the night in sleeping bags at a rest stop. Ettinger also made many other wild and foolish predictions about what science would bring to the world in his lifetime, so the book, like the Bible, is believable to those who want to believe. The world hates me. John-Henry and Claudia cared for him every day, and every day they discovered new levels of understanding and knowledge. She asked God to take her instead. "The legacy deserves to go on," she says finally, crying harder than before. The lines speak to the two competing desires governing her life: She wants to be close to a father she didn't really know for much of his life, but she wants to escape his shadow too. she cries.He presses hard on the brakes, and she gets out. It's a contract she wrote -- the Williams family loves handwritten contracts -- with her mother at a Howard Johnson's somewhere: "When I grow up I will never have a child. He got his freedom, fishing every day. There is only one picture of John-Henry in her house. It might have changed their lives. ", Claudia and John-Henry would have given anything to know this. He was 12. An experimental Alzheimers drug called lecanemab has been hailed as an historic breakthrough. In the night, he heard a kitten crying, and after searching for and finding her, he tucked the cat, fleas and all, into his bag. She screamed at them in the blood lab. The WNET Group creates inspiring media content and meaningful experiences for diverse audiences nationwide. American Masters is available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. Lives in East Palo Alto, California. A vulnerability he never had in his life. He'd been retired for eight years. She's searching, searching for a father, for a purpose, for a child, searching for the chance to complete what her dad started in the last decade of his life. Whenever she lets herself go back, she ends up at the same place: the beginning. There is only one picture of John-Henry in her house. How did we get here and what happens next? That was three decades ago. Every year, she plants a tree in their memory, and leaving her dad's house one day, she sees that one of John-Henry's trees is dying. claudiawilliams. ", He throws 96. With no children of her own, she's destined to remain a daughter. It's the same look her father got when she'd care for him in the last years of his life. TONY TOMSIC/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGETHIS STORY BEGAN two years ago, when I reached out to Claudia about meeting at her home in Hernando. Nothing worked. Her voice changes and her eyes and face soften when she says "Toothless.". "Congratulations," it began.CLAUDIA GRINNED WHEN I walked back into her house the day after she was accepted to Duke. One night, Ted looked at Claudia and asked, "Are you in on this too? Thought he wasn't very good at it. CBK GROUP/AP IMAGES. "I think I'm just looking for him to still be proud of me," she says. He needed more time. He never mentioned a pregnant Dolores, and he never mentioned the boy.To the public, he was a success, but to himself, he was a failure, consumed with shame and regret. If you also want to join us as we dig deeper, here are some resources to get you started, What the new immigration system means for care homes, For those who havent had enough of this terrifying tale, Thousands of trans people are turning to crowdfunding websites to help pay for treatment. BEFORE CLAUDIA DROVE me back to the airport, Abel quietly asked me to keep in touch because she didn't meet many new people and really struggled with goodbyes. "I love the Red Sox," he said. In a closet next to her garage, her father's Orvis 8.3-foot, 7-weight graphite fly rod leans on a wall. John-Henry kept saying cryonics provided a chance for them all to be together again one day. "I hate time," she says. Reminders of her father are everywhere in Claudia's life. "Just please listen to me. View the profiles of professionals named "Claudia Williams" on LinkedIn. In those last years, she taught him how to be a father to a daughter. Sections Ags Network. At Ted's request, Abel wrote her out of the will, and Abel said over the nine years he spent around Williams, he heard him mention Bobby-Jo maybe three times, and every time he called her a "f---ing syphilitic c---. The decision to sack 800 staff via Zoom and replace them with cheaper agency workers seemed to surprise many. When Claudia went through a breakup, instead of keeping her pain a secret like she'd done as a teenager, she explained how to comfort her. "But he is interested. Last months mini-budget has thrown the property market into crisis. Eric rushes toward her. He's the Jays' No. Around 2005, she started playing tennis with some older ladies in the neighborhood. "Abel would write up a contract on a napkin or a piece of scratch paper, which is what Ted liked, and negotiate a settlement: Ted agreed to take the pills every day, and John-Henry agreed to let him shower only four times a week. On a shelf above a Desert Eagle .44, his fishing logs tell a different story from the one he gave his fans and his children. "We might?" ", Love had control over him. So many firsts happened on that trip. "I didn't want John-Henry to lose his father," she says. 1 prospect. The first time they visited Ted in Florida together, he made sure she knew not to annoy him, advising her to use the bathroom before leaving the airport. "You have to take these pills. He knew he might not live through his procedure, and at the end of his life, he'd finally put aside his own wishes for theirs. Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641 Advertisement Ad PBS station members can view many series, documentaries and specials via PBS Passport. "Four years passed between John-Henry's purchasing the books and requesting membership documents from Alcor. Everything about me says no. In big letters, he wrote "Make Claudia co-petitioner" and circled it. The Other 80, +9 more . He's everywhere. The dining table used to be there, by the window. Zolgensma is a life-saving drug but it costs more than a million and a half pounds per patient. "Doc, if you can give me any extra time with these guys, let's do it," he said. A Louisville Slugger leaned in the same cabinet as Toothless the Dragon, the first bit of baseball memorabilia in the living room. Then the Williams kicked in: She moved up the USTA ratings, 3.5 to 4.0, then, she says, she became the best 4.0 in Citrus County, then the top-ranked 4.0 player in the state. she asks, hopeful. "We might?" ""No," he says. . Ted's white Sub-Zero fridge with the wood-paneled front is unplugged in the corner. Ad. Nearby, pocketknives rust at their hinges. Everyone settles in, and the movie starts. When you laugh -- ". That night, like always, he wrote in his fishing log. After seemingly endless summers on the golf course with my dad, I received my college degree and landed my first job as an Assistant Golf Professional after graduation. His health declined steadily for nearly the next nine years. NINE MONTHS AFTER that trip, he had a stroke. Liz Truss will go down in history as Britains shortest serving prime minister. "A few years ago, she and Eric's teenage daughters from his first marriage went to see a movie called The Water Horse, about a boy who raises a Loch Ness Monster -- which is close enough to a dragon for Claudia -- then releases the beast to save its life. "You won't always be there to protect him," a character in the movie tells the father, and Claudia smiles, turns to Eric and says, "John-Henry would've loved this movie. "I was there at Fenway Park when Ted Williams hit his last home run," he said. "I surpassed John-Henry quicker because I got away," she says.She never asked for anything. A strange family, to be sure, but a family nonetheless, with a patriarch who'd found escape from his guilt and his shame in the company of his children. Young women are being offered the chance to delay the menopause. She stepped out of the shadows and did readings. "I don't think [Ted] at the end of his life felt like he accomplished anything," Abel says. "They spent hours around the dining table, and every so often John-Henry would bring it up. Months passed, and after trying every other option available to buy time, only surgery would help Ted. In the long row of filing cabinets, a drawer holds a blue folder marked "Alcor." Ted Williams left behind so many unanswered questions that two of his children went to the extreme edges of science to find more time for them to be answered, while his third child went to equal extremes to stop them. She lives in a sprawling Florida community popular among retirees whose first resident and primary pitchman was her father. "Are you still smoking?" I left wondering what kind of life awaited her. As she parks her car and goes into the house, she's deciding whether to share an idea that has been gaining momentum and fervor. Her father offered her money, but she refused it. Every day, she drives on Ted Williams Memorial Parkway. As published for the West End Magazine online. "Daddy would be so proud," she said. Claudia and Eric pull into the drive, the gate with the red No. COLIN BRALEY/REUTERS/LANDOV, The clean cryonics narrative of Bradlee's book doesn't match the messiness of that long family dispute. Impossible to hit, even harder to defend, Floyd Mayweather is fighting to leave the ring the way he entered it: Standing. He lived most of the next 41 years as a kind of island. They paid $30 a pill for vitamins and pumped oxygen-rich air into his room. A strange family, to be sure, but a family nonetheless, with a patriarch who'd found escape from his guilt and his shame in the company of his children. Most people his age wouldn't risk a series of operations. Doctors gave her electroshock therapy. The Amherst Common hosted a variety of cultures on Saturday April 9 2016 during the annual International Festival. "That's still something, right, on the table that you and I might do?" Tapper has written five off-Broadway musicals. "Please don't be mad," she said. Ettinger also made many other wild and foolish predictions about what science would bring to the world in his lifetime, so the book, like the Bible, is believable to those who want to believe. Once, he arrived late to spring training because he lost track of time while hunting wolves in a cold northern forest, and the media focused so much on the process story of the tardiness that nobody seemed to notice the window Williams had briefly opened into his truest self: He sought peace in the wilderness with wolves.TED WILLIAMS HATED his childhood home, leaving before graduation the same as Claudia, never going back. Claudia Williams. Major Support for American Masters provided by. . Articles by Claudia Williams on Muck Rack. Claudia Voight die: It is with deep sadness that the news of Claudia Voight's passing on February 21, 2023, was announced on various social media platforms. Continue reading Old time musicians find new sound , The annual Woodford Folk Festival, from December 26-January 1 each year, continued to inspire, surprise and entertain attendees during the 30 anniversary of the event. For years, she'd thought her father had stopped maturing when he became famous at 20, and now they'd both reached his emotional age, equals and running buddies for the first time. Her friends at Springfield College didn't realize her father was Ted Williams until she asked some guys who played baseball to teach her to throw; the Red Sox had requested she toss out a first pitch as a surprise to her father, and she didn't want, as she told them, "to throw like a girl." With Ted's remains in stasis -- they didn't hold a memorial service, not even a small, private one -- she hasn't moved past grief into acceptance and peace. When she is up, laughing with a goofy smile and light in her eyes, you cannot get close enough to her, and when she is down, spiraling into a darkness only she can see, you cannot get far enough away. Her co-workers at the Crystal River, Florida, medical center where she's a nurse are only now finding out on their own. A heavy rain is falling, blurring the streetlights reflecting off the asphalt, and she looks out into the glare of the headlamps and sees something move. Eric rushes toward her. Does technology make interactions between parents and children better, or worse? He died in 2002 and is frozen at 7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, Arizona. "I can't do a f---ing thing! Always scared of being abandoned, he fit a dog harness on a long leash and tied Bangor to his bed. About Major League Baseball "Grief is weird," Claudia says, riding at night through the dark neighborhoods around their house. "Daddy would sit right here," she says, laughing. Ha. Ted Williams' mother gave him nothing but a name, and as soon as he grew old enough, he gave it back, changing Teddy on his birth certificate to the more respectable Theodore. Claudia, then 30 and an elite athlete, paced the halls like a wild animal. "Jesus," he said, then he walked away.By the time Eric Abel came into the Williams inner circle as the family attorney, Ted had already excommunicated Bobby-Jo. Rarely has a gesture been as misunderstood as taking the knee. "Did you see the frog?" She entered a psych ward, which he paid for, and got an abortion, which he paid for, and when her scars taunted him -- physical proof that he'd become his mother -- he paid for plastic surgery too. "Just please listen to me. She is laughing in the kitchen, a lazy Sunday morning. "Those late nights when it was clear he didn't have much time left ," she says, trailing off, the light gone.textIn public, Williams seemed to revel in the solitary pursuit of baseball greatness, then fishing greatness, but really, his lonely existence was self-imposed. John-Henry died on a Saturday, and as he requested, his body was suspended at Alcor too, in the same tank as his dad.Eleven years he's been gone. The stories and biographies quote staff members and associates who say Ted continued to want his remains scattered in the Atlantic, and in the end, Bradlee seemed to conclude that Ted did not want to be frozen. On the day his only son, John-Henry, was born, Ted was salmon fishing in Canada. After her father died, she received a sponsor's exemption to run the Boston Marathon in his memory; she turned it down, trained and ran fast enough to qualify on her own. It smelled like him. She keeps many things locked away. In the definitive biography of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr., John-Henry is shown as a terrible businessman and a cheat, someone who lied so often -- inviting his dad to a college graduation where he didn't actually graduate, claiming to make his college baseball team when he never tried out -- that he lied about Ted's wanting to be frozen too. She did a wonderful job connecting with team members and using examples that impact our day to day. The lines speak to the two competing desires governing her life: She wants to be close to a father she didn't really know for much of his life, but she wants to escape his shadow too.She left home at 16, moving to Europe to finish high school, working as a nanny, training for triathlons, living in France, then Switzerland, then Germany, any place where nobody'd ever heard of Ted Williams. I wanna say no so goddamn bad. John-Henry Williams, a 6-foot-5 ringer for his handsome father, had long lived in the zeitgeist as a bumbling son who took and took without ever standing on his own. "'Goddamn, that's my son. All they had was each other, and both longed to decode their dad, and maybe find themselves in the process. Her co-workers at the Crystal River, Florida, medical center where she's a nurse are only now finding out on their own. "Doc, if you can give me any extra time with these guys, let's do it," he said. I can tell.". Henry Leutwyler for ESPN MagazineCLAUDIA LOVES DRAGONS. Log In. She says Ted sighed, agreed to go along with their wishes and signed a piece of paper agreeing to be frozen. Centuries may pass but to him there will be only a moment of sleep without dreams. Soon she will face herself alone, as her father faced the world stripped of the soothing focus of baseball and fishing.