The homeless man with the golden voice. By now, everyone knows about this rags-to-redemption story. The former radio announcer is getting a second chance like nobody's business. He did crack, committed petty crimes, and committed fraud. The man left his blind wife with seven children. Williams is an addict. He claims to be sober for two and a half years, now it turns out he's only been sober for only a year. Williams needs rehabilitation for starters.
He got paid $10,000 to be the official voice of Kraft Foods. He's been on just about ever TV show from Dr. Phil, The Today Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He admitted on TV that he lived to smoke and that he wasn't going to blow his second chance because he would die. He saw his mother for the first time in two decades.
While it appears to be an inspiring story, it's NOT. I got to tell you the part of this story that upset me: he abandoned his SEVEN children, didn't handle fame well the first time, and left his blind wife, Patty, for another woman. Why are we applauding this? His ex-wife raised all these children by herself with public assistance and food stamps. He contributed NOTHING and Williams disappeared on her.
The ex is a better woman than I am because I don't know how she raised the children and managed her daily struggle sans child support. Williams is promising to help out his children and grandchildren financially. Just don't know if the money will help. Nice gesture. A bit late. There is too much hurt within the family.
See, I am sick of hearing these types of stories. As a single mom raising my own family, I have an idea how this mother feels. The daily struggle, which bill gets paid, how do I buy food for my family, staying up late to finish work or care for a sick child.
I'm NOT a Williams cheerleader. As the man of the house, he had a greater responsibility to his family. And he failed. He disappointed them. His daughter, Trish admitted she felt abandoned. She wanted him to be around and has a lot of anger. She feels damaged. Trish wanted to talk to him and tell him how her day went. Trish knows that her mother did the best she could.
Instead of meeting the challenge head on; he abandoned them. If you love someone, you come up with a plan and weather the hard times together. As far as I'm concerned he didn't try hard enough.
No one said life would be easy: it's hard. If Patty wanted to do bad by herself, she didn't need help from him.
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Wednesday, January 12th 2011 at 3:41PM
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