By Takara Bunn

"Please tell me I’m dreaming," Steven Williams said, as he thought back about the past. He kept repeating these words throughout our talk. As a child he grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant with his grandmother. His mother was a drug addict. "My mother spent her time finding ways to feed her addiction," he said. His grandmother not once seemed to regret having to take responsibility in raising him. His life was easy until adulthood when problems seemed to grow.

At the age of seventeen, Steven Williams had to take care of himself, because his grandmother passed away. He recalls one special memory in particular whenever someone mentions his grandmothers’ name. During one Christmas his grandmother didn’t have enough money to buy him a present. As Christmas was approaching she was always pacing back and forth, thinking hard, but he didn’t know what her thoughts were about. She was actually thinking of a way to buy something special for Christmas. She decided to sell her ring that her grandmother gave her when she was nine years old. The ring wasn’t worth much, but it was worth a lot to his grandmother. With the money she received she bought him an action figure that he had wanted for a while. "When I found out what she had done," he said, "I decided to keep this action figure and give it to my grandchild." That’s exactly what he did. He gave it to his oldest grandson and said when he gets older he will explain to him how special that action figure is. "My grandmother left me with pleasant memories," he said as his eyes filled with tears, "these memories overcame the sadness."

He decided to drop out of school and get a job delivering pizza. For a while he stayed with his friends, but as time passed he earned enough money to get his own apartment. Steven Williams married Chastity Brown at the age of twenty-nine. "She was my first love," he said. They were together for exactly seven years before they decided to get married. They had three children together. He had to spend a lot of time with his children because his wife became severely ill. "I was always worried about her health, but I didn’t want the children to worry about her" Steven Williams said.

She passed away from lung cancer after six years of marriage. This was one of the most devastating moments in his life. After this he didn’t know how to move on. He tried running away from his problems by moving down south with his children. He lived there for fifteen months. He just couldn’t make it out there, so he moved back to Brooklyn. Then he lived by himself for sixteen years with visits from his three daughters and grandchildren. Every time they came to visit he wished they could stay forever. "They light up my life," he said.

One visit from his oldest daughter changed his life. She requested that he come live with her and her children. He jumped at the offer and moved out right away. "My grandchildren are my energy," he said. "My every day life consists of playing with my grandchildren and frequent visits from neighbors like you", he said as a smile lit up his face. Steven Williams still likes to sit back and think about the pleasant memories of his deceased family members. Even though he experienced some devastating moments in his past, he still believes that his life couldn’t be better.