When grown men cry, it always gets to us. We just can’t help it. Especially when they are dads crying over their kids. And especially when they are supposed to be bad dudes in prison. At the end of each day of our 2003 Father to Child Summer Camp, Bill sat in the corner and cried as his ten year old son Jason walked out the door. Bill went to prison when his son was 11 months old. That was the last time he saw Jason, until we brought him to camp to spend a week with his dad in the prison visiting room. Our first meeting with Bill left an indelible mark on us. He was the most ragged prisoner we’d ever met with long gray hair, a beard to his waist, and no teeth. He was bitter and just wanted to bury himself in prison because he had nothing to which he could look forward. Meeting his son face to face changed all of that. He cut his hair and beard and put in his teeth and I saw a transformed individual by the end of camp. He writes to us of the healing and hope he experienced that week that has stayed with him. When Jason “aged out” of camp at age 14, Bill was due to be released in a few month later. But before father and son could be re-united on the outside Bill passed away in prison. His last meeting with us left as great a mark as his first. Bill was a good and pure hearted man, whose devotion to his son and to Hope House DC were unparalleled.

Bill and Jason