William Henry Riley was not just my
son. He endeared himself to so many people at the Kindgom Halls he attended
and many, many older men in the congregation became "William's Dad". These
webpages about William are not intended to become some sort of "shrine
to William".
Many of you are aghast at how William
could have died so suddenly. I have some answers to that question. You're
wondering, perhaps, why William did not receive some kind of last minute
pardon from his God, Jehovah, and get healed, so you ask "Why
didn't William Riley receive a miracle healing from God?"
I have an answer to that. I also have some thoughts
about what actually ganged up on him, combining into such a strong force
that his body did not have a chance to survive. Blood transfusions would
not have saved William.
This webpage is going to change and
grow over the next 6 months. Your answers will be forthcoming I promise
you. You will not have to float through time never receiving answers.
William Riley had several purposes for living. He was "into" computers.
Most of you knew that. But it wasn't just his job. It
was the way he thought.
A few days after his passing, I realized
he had assigned his Dad Woodrow Riley (me) a Job Number many years
ago. He was methodically executing a plan to help
me become an active Witness again. When he began this plan
I'm not sure, but more than likely it was about the time he got baptized
as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1994. That was just how much he loved
me, that was just how smart he was.
And that was just how CLEARLY he saw that one,
JUST ONE, of his
"missions in life" was to help his Dad come back to active worship and
Meetings.
Unknown to William, I was responding to his efforts,
so that by the time he passed away last week he knew he was succeeding.
*********************
What was William's
"Purpose in Life" ?
So while I mourn his passing greatly
as we all are now, I must tell you that Jehovah has helped me understand
William after William's death to a degree that has really amazed me! William knew that all the terrible accidents I have lived through
was God's Will his Dad not die. He knew I had received many
miracles to still be here. We all know he had many good reasons to
live that were more important than me; his wife Leslie, daughter Taylor
Nicole.
But he never, ever swayed in his determination
to systematically help his Dad make a "comeback" and get back to serving
Jehovah. He was executing a military-level plan to help Dad that lasted
from 1994 into 2006. hahahaha What a great plan he had. When William was
around 2 years old I was driving for a company in Richmond Virginia that
had just bought a brand new GMC road tractor. I told him a few times I
was going to take him & Vernon down to the yard and let them "see
the General", which was the Model Name of the truck.
We drove onto company property. Not
seeing the truck, I was disappointed. So was little William. But he didn't
get angry or make an outburst in the car. No. As you all know, William
Riley was not about outbursts. But he did raise his voice as he said "I
want to see the General, I want to see the General."
And at that moment I realized... Young William had not understood and thought we were going to SEE
A REAL LIVE GENERAL. hahahaha I laughed hard enough to crack
a rib. Well, when William was ill in the Roanoke Rehab Center, I was thinking
of one of the ways I had failed him as his Dad. He had wanted to play
football in school but could not as we did not have the required hospitalization
coverage.
The answer to William Riley was that
he decided to get baptized and run for a much greater goal line. He decided
he was going to win the game of life, grow close to God, to God's Son,
to God's organization, and you know, I now see
that William knew he was going to win the game. BUT, he didn't
just want to win for himself as worldly ball players do in a real football
game. No, his intention was to help all of us, both me, his brothers,
his Mom, wife, child, and anyone else he could find. No doubt many
extended family members too.
When
William passed away, he had a look on his face that he knew he had
succeeded in every one of these plans. He knew he had carried a box
full of footballs across the goal line at one time. As he was laying there
and we awaited Simpson Tharpe, I realized he did not need to meet the
General.
William
was the General.
****************
I figured these things out and knew
I had to write it for all his "surrogate Moms and Dads" whom he loved
at the Kingdom Halls, all of those wonderful
people who "filled my shoes" for me as I have been so ill, including
most of all William's Mom. There was much more going on in
William's ol' brain than any of us knows:
I believe William, knowing how hard
I had been tackled, one of his "missions" he decided to execute was to
get out there and be the complete Jehovah's Witness that his Dad was in
1969, for the purpose of showing his Dad what old Dad could have been...
and would have been had I not been bipolar, had my vertebrae not been
cracked, had my thyroid worked, had I not at times suffered from all-over
intense arthritis from genetics & accidents on my jobs.
William Riley
was giving me a glimpse of what my Healthy Physical Life will
be like in the future when God decides to restore all of Mankind who choose
to worship Him. So as many of you mourn, perhaps
thinking erroneously that William was denied a miracle, you
now know the truth. William {plus woodrow} were that miracle, the son jumping
in & carrying his sick old man to safety. He needed me to complete
his miracle and I needed him to see mine flowing from him. I decided to
write these webpages so you would understand and give glory to God with
me of just how many ways this Christian man had won by following a military-level
Plan and campaign, visiting me regularly to apply healing salve.
And I suspect he knew I would figure
it out.
William completed & healed me.
**************
As all these realizations about William
churned me like a butter churn inside this past week, I also realized
that William would have wanted me to turn my skills as an engine designer
toward healing the brothers & sisters in some way they would benefit.
It didn't take God's spirit long to help me, so a few mornings ago I too
constructed a plan worthy of William's great heart & intellect. These
comment pages are to be a William-inspired "engine".
The Plan was to set up a webpage where
everyone who knew, loved & respected William could call in their feelings,
whatever was in their heart to say
about their experiences with him, field service, jokes, what made William
laugh, say a few personal words of encouragement to his bereaved wife
& daughter. And that we would record all their comments, combining
them into a webpage for all his Christian friends, many his relatives such
as the Smiths, Conners & Jennings, could come
to that one page and listen to what everyone had to say & vice versa.
The phone number I gave to you all
at the Vinton War Memorial was not meant to be making any shrine to William.
It is William's gift through me & his brothers
Vernon and Randolph, that all of you can come together and
read each other's comments, gain in Christian strength & understanding
as we look intently toward the future revealings of God's Great Plans
as they unfold and become our new Reality.
It is the biggest project we have
ever tackled...
but, in the end, we will all benefit.
Just as William
wanted.
****
Return to this web page as often as
you like friends, as we will be making changes as God's spirit directs
us in this work. To my knowledge no one has ever set up such an online
system as this so we have to wing it. But we, like William, know we never
work alone nor exclusively of our own power.