It's funny what we remember sometimes.
Every year on August 1st, I remember the boy I had a crush on in 7th and 8th grade! William Funke. (Catholic school! You couldn't use nicknames like Bill!)
William was so cute! He had long bangs with his redish-brown hair that made him look a bit like Herman* of Herman Hermits (one of my favorites "British Invasion" bands at the time). I think he used to even kind of pretend he was Herman. *Here's another thing I remember: Herman's real name was Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone! Now, why in the hell can I remember THAT???? geez.
Anyway, William was cute, friendly, and fun. Then he got sick.
He missed a lot of school in 8th grade. Our nuns told us he was very sick. I don't know of anyone who went to visit him, or even talked about trying to. After a few months we were told he had stomach cancer.
Then one day he was back at school! I was so happy to see him! He didn't look great, but, hey, he was well enough to come back!
I don't know how long he stayed in school, I think it was a very short time, and then, he was gone again. He died while we were still in 8th grade. We were all so sad.
We lost another classmate that school year too: Jimmy Lockhart. The way I remember the story was that he was sliding into base, and the 2nd baseman jumped up to get a ball, and come down on Jimmy's leg, breaking it badly. Somehow, from there he got complications. He too died before we graduated from St. Peter's School that June 1966.
Apparently he had leukemia, a childhood blood/bone disease that somehow came to light while he was in the hospital. I remember thinking the broken leg turned into leukemia, but some adult explained to me that no, he had leukemia, and it was discovered when his leg would not heal.
I was friends with Jimmy's sister Nancy who I think was just one year old than us. I wonder where she is now.
A dozen years ago, shoot, who knows, maybe 20 years ago, I tried to look up the Funke family in Harper Woods, Michigan. I even called one family in the White Pages to see if they were William's family. I explained to them that I was looking for his parents to tell them I still remember him. As a parent myself, I thought they'd appreciate hearing that. But, they were not related.
I've searched again on the internet, but no luck.
I should try to look up Nancy Lockhart too.
In any case, here's to you, sweet William Funke! You would have turned 56 today.
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