Willie’s Story

“We grew up in West Roxbury, four of us kids. Willie was the smartest, and everybody liked him. At Roxbury Latin they called him Wee Willie Walker or W3. He got a full scholarship to Amherst College and was a Greek and Latin scholar. I would call him with my Latin homework and he’d translate it over the phone. He was that smart.

He came home for Thanksgiving vacation his freshman year and was driving around with friends, sitting in the back seat, when they had a fender bender. Willie hit his head. It was 1973 and passengers in the back seat weren’t required to wear seat belts. They sent Willie to the hospital and he had a massive cerebral hemorrhage. If my mother hadn’t been there with him he would’ve died. The stroke left him blind, paralyzed on the left side, and without any short term memory.

They brought him home and he stayed there with my mother for thirty years until she died in 2002. He was the center of attention. My mother took him everywhere. She took him to classes at Harvard extension, but without short term memory he couldn’t learn anything.

When my mother died, my uncle stayed with Willie in the house until it became too much for him and we put Willie in a nursing home. They kept him clean and fed, and put him to bed, but they left him alone and he didn’t have anything to do. There was no one for him to talk with and he began to decline terribly. Mass Rehab sent someone over to talk with him every week, and finally they told us they could place him in a community residence as part of the Rolland consent decree.

When he moved into the house on Summer Street his life improved dramatically. The house manager worked with us to reduce his medication and Willie began to emerge from his shell. He’s very funny. The nursing home overmedicated him to make it easy for them.

At MAB Willie has a real life. He loves going to his day program and living with the guys at Summer Street. There’s always a lot going on, and it gives him something to talk about. We come over every Saturday and bring lunch for the guys. That’s a big treat. Willie loves French toast and fried chicken. He has his favorite TV shows. Lawrence Welk is his favorite, though he admits it’s kind of corny. He loves the staff who work with him.

Willie’s the kid who went from being number one in his class, tops on the sports field, and the most popular guy socially, to being just so limited and needy. All the things he thrived on were suddenly gone. It can happen to any of us.”

Based on an interview with Willie’s sisters, Annie and Joanie. Willie, 56, lives in Hyde Park.