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Wednesday, March 21, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
In memoriam: Jim Williams — A writer, photographer and a brave man
Editor in Chief
“All you have to do is
write one true sentence. Write
the truest sentence that you
know.”
— Ernest Hemingway
Nugget columnist Jim Wil-
liams lost his long battle with
cancer on March 10, dying in
hospice here in Central Ore-
gon, with his extended family
by his side.
It was a battle he docu-
mented in his column “Can-
cer and me,” an unflinching
and sometimes harrowing
window on what it is like to
face a cancer diagnosis for
the third time in his life. Jim
didn’t flinch. It’s hard enough
to face the truth when you
know that cancer is going to
kill you; harder still to find
the words to describe exactly
what that means — to you
and to those you love. But Jim
wanted to do that. He wanted
to write one true sentence.
And then another.
He called me on the day
he went into hospice care. He
had two requests: “I want to
write one more column,” he
said. He was a little worried
that the drugs he was being
given to manage agonizing
pain might make it impossi-
ble, but he wanted to try. And
one more thing: “Will you
write something about me?”
he asked.
Jim didn’t get the chance
to write that last column —
the pain was too great, the
insidious disease had dug
its claws in too deep. He
wasn’t conscious and lucid
long enough to put together
any more true sentences. So,
in fulfillment of his other
request, I will try:
Jim Williams was a writer.
When you’re a real writer, it’s
not just something you do,
it’s what you are. You have
a need to gain understanding
through banging out one word
after another, hoping that you
can explain, convince or sim-
ply describe — to make sense
of the world to yourself and
to others. If the one last damn
thing you are determined to
achieve in a life you know
is running out is to write one
more column, my friend, you
are a writer.
“Cancer and me” helped
people. I know that, because I
heard from readers, and so did
Jim. His writing made them
feel less alone in a world
grown dark in the shadow of
cancer. There is nothing that
means more to a writer.
“It was huge,” Jim’s wife,
Katie, said. “It was authentic
and healing and a way for
him to get his own emotions
out about what was going on.
Sometimes it’s easier to write
what you’re going through
than it is to talk about it, to
verbalize it.”
Katie thinks that Jim’s
column was also a way for
him to explain to his daugh-
ter Angela what he was going
through without having to tell
her face-to-face.
Jim made his living as
a plan reviewer for several
agencies and municipalities.
When he was living in Sis-
ters, he worked for the build-
ing department of Deschutes
County, part of the time with
a particular responsibility
for Sisters, where he’d sunk
his roots in 1998. The Great
Recession that hammered
the housing market in Cen-
tral Oregon and across the
United States starting in 2007
and 2008 forced the county to
lay him off. It was then that
he picked up a camera, and
shortly after that, a pen.
“It wasn’t until middle age
that he really embraced the
creative in himself,” Katie
reflected.
He combined his passion
for cycling with his newfound
interest in photography in his
first freelance assignment for
The Nugget, shooting the Sis-
ters Stampede Mountain Bike
Race.
“He loved it,” Katie
recalled.
He had taken up cycling
after beating cancer for the
second time, in 2004. He
was determined not to let his
health struggles keep him
from an active life.
“He never dwelled on
that,” Katie said. “After his
treatment for his second can-
cer, he wasn’t going to let it
stop his life.”
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Katie became part of that
life after they met online.
When they met in person in
Portland, Katie recalled, “He
was such a cool customer.”
Katie had determined that
a good sense of humor was
right at the top of the list for
qualified dating material, and
Jim had that, for sure.
“He made me laugh so
much that day,” she said.
And, she says, their first
kiss was a toe-curler.
“Good kisser. Makes me
laugh. Those are pretty good
things,” she said.
They got married and
Katie joined Jim at home in
Sisters in 2006.
The road got very rough
and dark, but Katie is pro-
foundly grateful for the depth
that their relationship devel-
oped through adversity. She
noted that Jim had “kind of
a rough childhood” without
much in the way of emotional
support. In their marriage,
in sickness and in health, he
found that.
“He really got to experi-
ence unconditional love,” she
said. “That’s the thing that
I’m most grateful for — that
he was able to experience that
before he died.”
It wasn’t always easy to
accept, particularly in the
indignities of a terrible form
of cancer.
“Jim was such a proud per-
son and it was so hard for him
that I had to help him,” Katie
said.
In one of his last columns,
Jim reflected: “Looking
back, I just shake my head
in amazement. I was always
kinda surprised that any-
body would fall in love with
ME. That someone would
go through this torture with
me and not leave was even
more amazing. For better or
worse? Katie got a heapin’
helpin’ of worse to last a
lifetime. Despite this illness,
I’m a very lucky man. There
is nothing like the love of a
good woman. Especially one
who will put up with every-
thing that someone with can-
cer goes through.”
Last month, Jim decided
that he wanted to write about
other things. He didn’t know
how long he had, but he was
tired of looking inward and
wanted to engage with the
world again. Unsurprisingly,
his first “new” column, which
we titled “Through these
eyes,” was about music —
perhaps the most powerful
element in his emotional life
outside his love for his wife
and daughter.
“Music was so important
to him,” Katie recalled. It
wasn’t just music — it was
the lyrics; how a song made
you feel, how it expressed
what you were going through
in your life.”
In talking with Katie about
the complex, intelligent, pas-
sionate man who was her hus-
band, we both kept coming
back to how extraordinarily
brave he was — even though
he did not see himself that
way.
“I would tell him time
after time that he was the
bravest person I’ve ever met,”
she said.
PHOTO PROVIDED
Jim Williams lost his battle with
cancer on March 10.
He showed that on these
pages. It takes tremendous
fortitude to look a painful
death in the face and sit down
and write it out, one true sen-
tence at a time.
A Celebration of Jim Wil-
liams’ life will be held on
Saturday, April 14, from 2 to
5 p.m. in the Brooks Room at
Black Butte Ranch.
Special Easter
Brunch Buffet
Easter Sunday, April 1, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Reservations please, 541-549-3663
www.AspenLakes.com for a full menu.
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