Bill

My dad, me (in the 10th grade), Tommy and Bill

Youa.tt, William Granger Jr., 59, died Tuesday. Arrangements by Gorsline-Runciman, East Lansing

Bill Y.ouatt died Tuesday night. The last time I saw him was…actually...at my grandma’s funeral. I stood before the church and began my speech about grandma. I remember seeing him smiling from the back of the little, country church. That was in 2 years ago this past September. He was my father’s friend but his family and mine knew each other quite well. He lived just down the street from my dad in a beautiful home. I went there several times mostly for MSU Homecoming. The You.att’s were so…elegant, yet real. Bill was my sister’s divorce lawyer. I believe he was also the golf course’s lawyer or investor or something. He leaves behind three children and it’s almost like the names of his family say it all: June (the wife), Allison, Emily and Andrew with the red hair. I remember Bill bringing Andrew down to my dad’s tailgating spot at State. Another acquaintance of ours noticed Andrew had the same exact football as my father. So, the acquaintance hid my dad’s football under a blanket and when Bill and Andrew turned to leave, the acquaintance whispered to my dad, “hey, Charlie. Where’s that kid going with your ball?” My dad chased down Bill and a scared Andrew insisting that Andrew must have mistakenly taken my dad’s football. It was pretty funny and Bill laughed, too.

I once traveled to Notre Dame with Bill, my dad and Tommy, another one of my father’s friends. This is the only picture I could find of Bill last night, taken just before we drove to South Bend. Bill was a soft-spoken man who loved to tell witty stories. I remember him at my dad’s house for Super Bowl or State games. I remember him at the Chas Classic (my dad’s annual golf tournament). I remember him sitting at Dagwood’s with his best pals, having a beer. I remember how thin and pale he looked the last time I saw him. Diabetes. I remember he once told my father that he just wanted to live to see his youngest child graduate from high school, but he didn’t think he would. Bill got to see Andrew graduate and he got to see his daughters graduate from college, too.

My dad called me last night and told me that he and another friend were talking about Bill. “I always wondered,” the friend said, “why a guy like that…Bill…would hang out with guys like us.” Yeah, they were ranking each other under Bill but Bill never saw it that way. That was what made him so classy. He could have been hanging out with the elite or something but he hung out with the every day, middle class Joes.

I’m thinking of his family now. They knew this day was coming, though they held out hope. Bill blessed his family and he blessed us.