A strange family, to be sure, but a family nonetheless, with a patriarch who'd found escape from his guilt and his shame in the company of his children. "Just a part of the collection of artifacts fills a storage room to its 10-foot ceiling. She felt time rushing away. Everyone settles in, and the movie starts. When you laugh -- ". "Mom's having a bad day," she tells him. He was still learning, he was still -- he was still -- what is it? Latest by Claudia Williams How the manhunt for the Monterey Park mass shooter unfolded By Claudia Williams with wires "What does Dad think?" In the long row of filing cabinets, a drawer holds a blue folder marked "Alcor." CLIFF WELCH/ICON SPORTSWIRE/AP IMAGES. But what about the residents who fear for their health? Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641 Latest Stories. Ted, exhausted and struggling to keep his eyes open, sort of laughed, then his son helped him to the recliner where he slept. by Tim Keown, May 2 fight will seal Mayweather's legacy. Michael Kantor and Albert M. Tapper are executive producers. And once he realized 'I can be good at this, and these kids want to learn from me,' we had run out of time.". Nobody is clean. "Are you still smoking?" Articles by Claudia Williams on Muck Rack. First, he needed a heart catheterization, and doctors worried he might not survive even that preliminary procedure. She never held a job. And we actually showed him that not only was he good at it, we wanted him and we said, 'You can do this, Dad.' "He'd given up on it. Claudia remembers growing up with a mother increasingly bitter over her failed love affair, on a Vermont farm without a television, isolated by their environment and the fame of their absent father. Former players including Baseball Hall of Famers Willie McCovey and Wade Boggs, three-time All-Star Jim Kaat, and current Cincinnati Reds first baseman and former National League MVP Joey Votto share how Williams philosophy, commitment to greatness and approach to hitting influenced them in the film. She asked God to take her instead. At the funeral for Williams' longtime girlfriend, Louise Kaufman, Claudia recognized her half-sister, Bobby-Jo, whom she'd never met, simply by seeing a familiar wave of fear register on Bobby-Jo's face at the sound of Ted's voice: He boomed in the next room, sucking up all the oxygen, and two women, born 23 years apart, flinched. Stop!" Eric takes a breath and enters the room. She talked about the influence of her father, but she never mentioned that the father in question was Ted Williams.textWilliams hits one of his career 521 home runs, shown here in the late '50s. Near the safe in his old house is a note Ted saved, dated Dec. 10, 1983, when Claudia was 12. Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641. When Claudia went through a breakup, instead of keeping her pain a secret like she'd done as a teenager, she explained how to comfort her. She got it as a gift. she says, sounding vulnerable and shaky, like she's grasping for something beyond not only her reach but even her ability to name it. Prepare thyself, sir. What about the team of adults surrounding her? AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). A heavy rain is falling, blurring the streetlights reflecting off the asphalt, and she looks out into the glare of the headlamps and sees something move. "Abel would write up a contract on a napkin or a piece of scratch paper, which is what Ted liked, and negotiate a settlement: Ted agreed to take the pills every day, and John-Henry agreed to let him shower only four times a week. Days passed without her manic exercise routine, which she used to exhaust herself into a kind of peace. So many firsts happened on that trip. She never saw her father's body, and nothing forced her to really accept his disappearance from her life. He really tried.John-Henry looks over a special edition of Boston Red Sox Monopoly with his father in 2000, two years before Ted's death. "Dad, you have to take this medicine," John-Henry would be saying. They spent hours at that table, talking, playing the games he never got to play as a kid -- As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives -- and debating religion and the nature of life and death. "You could see an internal struggle," Abel says. Claudia Williams is a journalist for The Advocate covering general news and events. After Ted died, friends told reporters that Williams disagreed with his son's obsession. CLAUDIA WILLIAMS, NOW 43, rarely tells anyone about her relation to Ted Williams. Other times he'd listen. . I love you. It is really, really difficult to be the queen on the chessboard. Claudia Williams Journalist Greater Brisbane Area. She interrupts him. She is laughing in the kitchen, a lazy Sunday morning. The youngest of 4 girls born into a traditional Italian-American family, my dad nicknamed me "Clyde" and taught me to fish and play golf. "First of all, Claudia," he says slowly, "let me apologize; I don't know what we've done with that shirt.". Find Claudia Williams's email address, contact information, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media and more. Ettinger wrote that the freezer always trumped the grave, and with nothing to lose, why not take a chance? "First of all, Claudia," he says slowly, "let me apologize; I don't know what we've done with that shirt. Thought he wasn't very good at it. In public, Williams seemed to revel in the solitary pursuit of baseball greatness, then fishing greatness, but really, his lonely existence was self-imposed. "Four years passed between John-Henry's purchasing the books and requesting membership documents from Alcor. On the living room cabinet, there's a ceramic statue of Toothless, the star of the animated movie How to Train Your Dragon. The decision to sack 800 staff via Zoom and replace them with cheaper agency workers seemed to surprise many. "'Goddamn, that's my son. One afternoon, she gets a frantic phone call and rushes to her mom's bedside less than a mile away. 717.695.1798 info@claudia-williams.com Claudia Williams is the creator of: info@claudia . And we actually showed him that not only was he good at it, we wanted him and we said, 'You can do this, Dad.' Champion netballer Laura Geitz is set to return to the court for the Queensland Firebirds in 2018. Is online misinformation making peace less likely? Claudia has spent considerable time looking for documents that would prove she was in the hospital for the signing of the informal contract. Those memories, and the reaction of the elderly readers, finally pointed her toward her long-sought purpose.As part of her application and interview process at Duke -- still a long shot, but her dad taught her to try to be the greatest -- she said she wanted to specialize in gerontology. Canberra coach Ricky Stuart slams NRL, RLPA following further concussion controversy, 'How dare they': Possum Magic author hits out at 'ridiculous' Roald Dahl edits, 'Dastardly and heinous crime': Philippines governor killed at home by unknown gunmen, Vanuatu hit by two cyclones and twin earthquakes in two days, Emily was studying law when she had to go to court. "I hate time," she says.She lives in a sprawling Florida community popular among retirees whose first resident and primary pitchman was her father. They paid $30 a pill for vitamins and pumped oxygen-rich air into his room. She says Ted sighed, agreed to go along with their wishes and signed a piece of paper agreeing to be frozen. At the end, jealous and estranged, Bobby-Jo raged, leaving bizarre voice mails on Abel's answering machine: "This is Barbara Joyce Ferrell. When the boat docked back at Pier 39, they walked down the boards looking for dinner. "What the hell do you want me to do about it!" Claudia still remembers Bangor the Cat. "Did you see the frog?" Oct 12. To further explore the lives and works of more than 250 masters past and present, the American Masters website offers full episodes, film outtakes, filmmaker interviews, the podcast American Masters: Creative Spark, educational resources, digital original series and more. . Toggle navigation. Love had control over him. He should be cremated, his ashes "sprinkled at sea off the coast of Florida where the water is very deep.". The industry is normally worth $132 million a year. She also has considered using her egg and Abel's sperm to create a child, going back and forth between the ideas. Death exposes everyone, and it exposed Ted Williams, stripping away the armor he'd created as a boy on Utah Street, revealing what he'd tried so hard to hide: He came from damaged people, and he left damaged people behind.Reminders of her father are everywhere in Claudia's life. "Yes," he says. He'd been through the safes and the storage unit they keep filled to its 10-foot ceiling, hunting for the flannel shirt. View the profiles of professionals named "Claudia Williams" on LinkedIn. The tech platforms are hurrying to fix themselves during the pandemic. He died in 2002 and is frozen at 7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, Arizona. One night, Ted looked at Claudia and asked, "Are you in on this too? Nobody quoted is without an agenda, whether fueled by anger, misunderstanding, jealousy or love. Claudia Williams is a reporter and producer for ABC News Digital. "More from the Fight For Perfection IssueTim Keown: May 2 fight will seal Mayweather's legacyRobert Sanchez: The next Michael Phelps?Kate Fagan: Instagram hid reality of struggling track starSubscribe to the MagHer mom stabilizes, and Claudia heads home. The documentary explores not only the Baseball Hall of Famers remarkable on-field accomplishments but also his complicated relationships with his family, teammates, press, fans and himself. Claudia and her brother, John-Henry, supported cryonics; older half-sister Bobby-Jo wanted her father cremated and sued her siblings in the courts and fought them in the media. He hid in the hyperfocus required by baseball and fishing; most nights after ballgames, he returned to the hotel where he lived -- he never purchased a home in Boston -- and tied fishing flies alone. All they had was each other, and both longed to decode their dad, and maybe find themselves in the process. She trained for a triathlon and then devoted her life to making the 2000 Olympic team, falling just short. His mother, May, was obsessed with her work at the Salvation Army, abandoning her own kids, and the descriptions of his lonely life exist in many accounts, most notably biographies by Ben Bradlee Jr. and Leigh Montville. As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work. That's a good hot dog, isn't it? "What's incredible as an observer was to watch him in love with his kids," says Abel, now 52. Her dream was to attend Middlebury College in Vermont. What does her story tell us about pop culture in 2021? Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Judith and Burton Resnick, Seton J. Melvin, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, The Ambrose Monell Foundation, Lillian Goldman Programming Endowment, Vital Projects Fund, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Andr and Elizabeth Kertsz Foundation, Koo and Patricia Yuen, Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, The Marc Haas Foundation and public television viewers. "JOHN-HENRY WILLIAMS loved frogs.He loved anything small and weak. She didn't want to waste another moment. A cabinet minister insisted that there hasnt been a coup and that Liz Truss is not under a desk. I first joined Tortoise as part of the Sensemaker team, and before that worked at the New York Times and The Week magazine. . Her voice changes and her eyes and face soften when she says "Toothless.". She keeps many things locked away. Bradlee's book strongly suggests, without ever saying so directly, that she was lying about being there. He'd be waiting for me right here. On the living room cabinet, there's a ceramic statue of Toothless, the star of the animated movie How to Train Your Dragon. First, he needed a heart catheterization, and doctors worried he might not survive even that preliminary procedure. Although they enjoyed living in the city, they both decided they wanted to spend some time in a more rural area. It was the first and only time she has prayed. May Williams never saw her son play a major league game, even though she lived through his entire career. But something happened in the months after our first visit. Every culture has deeply symbolic rituals for burying and mourning the dead. "Just please listen to me. He's the Jays' No. Sometimes Ted would curse and walk away. ", I think I'm just looking for him to still be proud of me.. Lives in East Palo Alto, California. Eric rushed home and found her sitting at the computer, quiet and solemn, validated for perhaps the first time in her life. She's searching, searching for a father, for a purpose, for a child, searching for the chance to complete what her dad started in the last decade of his life. "You must be Bobby-Jo," Claudia said."Claudia?" A grilse. Nick Trotta is executive producer for Major League Baseball. She talked about the influence of her father, but she never mentioned that the father in question was Ted Williams. What happened in the 17 days between Kwasi Kwarteng becoming chancellor, sacking the Treasurys top civil servant and his fiscal event which crashed the British economy? About 20 years ago, she graduated from college. Claudia smiles. She learned how to sky-dive, and after having to deploy the backup chute on her first solo jump, she went back up again: I'll show you, sky! Once she gets her nurse practitioner's office open and running, she is still planning to use John-Henry's sperm or her egg to create a baby. Road toll rises to 31 following fatality at Greens Beach 7 months ago | By Claudia Williams | The Advocate (Tasmania) He smiled, and seemed lighter. It's thick, jammed with newsletters, receipts, contracts and John-Henry's handwritten notes taken during a visit to the cryonics facility.He filled six yellow legal-sized pages, jotting down the price for freezing just the head ($50,000) and the price for the entire body ($120,000), making charts and decision trees plotting the potential repercussions of cryonics. "I think I'm just looking for him to still be proud of me.- Claudia WilliamsShe let me poke through the family's filing cabinets, its safes, her dad's hospital records, anything I wanted -- she could prove, she said, that her father agreed to be frozen. When she was young, he got so mad at her that he spit a mouthful of food in her face. The people most affected by her book were the fans who idolized her dad, now going through the same struggles of aging and illness he had. Soon Ted gave them praise that would never reach their ears. Last months mini-budget has thrown the property market into crisis. There is only one picture of John-Henry in her house. TED WILLIAMS HATED his childhood home, leaving before graduation the same as Claudia, never going back. As the founding CEO, Claudia built Manifest MedEx (MX) into the largest nonprofit health data network in California. Ted beamed, a reward she seldom got while he lived and craves now that he's gone. Soon Ted gave them praise that would never reach their ears. She trained for a triathlon and then devoted her life to making the 2000 Olympic team, falling just short. Prepare thyself, sir. Like any damaged person, he took his protection too far. In her book, Claudia writes what her father told the doctor. Listen online, no signup necessary. During his remarkable career with the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams earned many nicknames The Kid, The Splendid Splinter and Teddy Ballgame, but the only nickname that he wanted was the greatest hitter who ever lived. In that pursuit, he combined his preternatural gifts with a fierce work ethic to become widely regarded as one of the greatest ever to play the game of baseball and in the process elevated the science of hitting in ways still emulated today. She's the only thing I have left.". She sighs hard; rattling almost, jagged on the edges, a noise so full of pain that people who hear it feel compelled to protect her. Once, he arrived late to spring training because he lost track of time while hunting wolves in a cold northern forest, and the media focused so much on the process story of the tardiness that nobody seemed to notice the window Williams had briefly opened into his truest self: He sought peace in the wilderness with wolves.TED WILLIAMS HATED his childhood home, leaving before graduation the same as Claudia, never going back. "The first seven years, any time I would have a break, any fun, one moment -- inevitably, guilt. . "Me too," she replied. A grilse. When people criticized him, he lashed out at them I think he was lonely. He couldn't buy her peace. "He's real to you, isn't he?" "'Goddamn, that's my son. Previously the senior advisor for health technology and innovation at the White House, Claudia helped lead President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative. "Hi, Daddy," she said. John-Henry looks over a special edition of Boston Red Sox Monopoly with his father in 2000, two years before Ted's death. BEFORE CLAUDIA DROVE me back to the airport, Abel quietly asked me to keep in touch because she didn't meet many new people and really struggled with goodbyes. At Ted's place in Islamorada, in the Keys, she got a terrible sunburn. That night, after Eric cooks steaks and Emma bakes sugar cookies, everyone piles onto the sofa for movie night. "You should look at the lyrics," she says as the stereo plays. Most people his age wouldn't risk a series of operations. On a page, he drew a horizontal graph, with a line drawn down the middle, dividing the plan into actions he'd take before convincing his father and what he'd need to do after. He lived most of the next 41 years as a kind of island. 9 closing behind them. In the definitive biography of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr., John-Henry is shown as a terrible businessman and a cheat, someone who lied so often -- inviting his dad to a college graduation where he didn't actually graduate, claiming to make his college baseball team when he never tried out -- that he lied about Ted's wanting to be frozen too. He signed the rest, and the whole box went into storage. Something happened to Ted Williams in the years after his son came into the world. He never mentioned a pregnant Dolores, and he never mentioned the boy. "I've had a great life, and what the hell, if I die, maybe I'll die on the table. The outside world slipped away, and the universe shrank to the three of them: a dad looking for absolution, a son who needed a dad to show him how to be a man, a daughter who'd always craved a family, which they at long last became. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website. "My heart hurt," she says.That night, after Eric cooks steaks and Emma bakes sugar cookies, everyone piles onto the sofa for movie night. Claudia Williams is a reporter and producer for ABC News Digital. She screamed at them in the blood lab. On a page, he drew a horizontal graph, with a line drawn down the middle, dividing the plan into actions he'd take before convincing his father and what he'd need to do after. Claudia Williams is a Journalist at The South Burnett Times based in Kingaroy, Queensland. Nearby, pocketknives rust at their hinges. If they bit him, he'd tap their beaks to scold them, as if they loved him with the same intellectual fervor he loved them. Nothing worked.Father and son had epic fights, bad enough that the caretakers called protective services. They spent hours around the dining table, and every so often John-Henry would bring it up. At home, he brought her back to health and felt hurt when she wanted to roam outside. It was two years before her best friend knew. He got his freedom, fishing every day. She and Eric will move in soon. Ted's health declined, more every day. He couldn't buy her peace. The lessons that he had to teach us, we didn't have the time to learn. He signed for millions. "She could hear him grinding his teeth. So, how many people have had the current boosters and who is eligible for what? Henry Leutwyler for ESPN MagazineCLAUDIA LOVES DRAGONS. I think that he had a difficulty making attachments. Claudia Williams. They turned their tragedies into a story of love and hope. It hurts too much. If you are a whistleblower, believe you have sensitive information that should be made public, or wish to protect your identity, find our more secure options. When I walked into the house, there'd be a hot dog on the table.". Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary after breaking the ministerial code. On June 14, he wrote about his son: "His casting is better than I expected so he must have been practicing some. Every patient who walked through the door would get treated like Ted Williams. At the end, jealous and estranged, Bobby-Jo raged, leaving bizarre voice mails on Abel's answering machine: "This is Barbara Joyce Ferrell. John-Henry kept saying cryonics provided a chance for them all to be together again one day. Her country club membership number is 9. "But he is interested. Nothing worked. I love you. Ad. 9 closing behind them.Her mood founders when she stands in the towering great room, cold and unfurnished now, except for row upon row of almost empty bookshelves rising toward the ceiling. Does the UK punish families for their poverty? She was about 9. The most important thing he read was the origin text of cryonics, a book by science fiction writer and professor Robert Ettinger titled The Prospect of Immortality. ", Their mom, Dolores, and Ted didn't last long. "Bobby-Jo lashed out, and Claudia hid, and John-Henry got as close as he could. Get in touch at claudia.williams@theadvocate.com.au or on 0448 310 641. I'm hurting. Claudia Williams is a journalist for The Advocate covering general news and events. His presence seemed real. TED WANTED TO change. How canwe know what really happened? "Everyone who knew Ted Williams knows that his daughter's going to Duke would mean more to him than his home runs and war medals combined. Ettinger also made many other wild and foolish predictions about what science would bring to the world in his lifetime, so the book, like the Bible, is believable to those who want to believe. The US snow crab harvest has been cancelled after billions of them went missing from the waters around Alaska. Ted drove her back to her mom's house in Miami once, and when they arrived, it transpired that Bobby-Jo had forgotten her keys, and Ted, raging, kicked her out of the car and left her standing alone there in the dark, exactly as his mother had done to him. After an aching rest and a few blisters on his casting hand, he is getting a little uninterested. He longed to rewrite the facts of his life. "Still do. Liz Truss will go down in history as Britains shortest serving prime minister. With Ted's remains in stasis -- they didn't hold a memorial service, not even a small, private one -- she hasn't moved past grief into acceptance and peace. A what? May Williams never saw her son play a major league game, even though she lived through his entire career. Henry Leutwyler for ESPN MagazineHer husband, Eric Abel, comes home from running errands. His remains were sent to a cryonics lab in Arizona where they remain to . That night, like always, he wrote in his fishing log. After nearly three years, China has abandoned key parts of its flagship zero-covid policy. Claudia Williams Buyer at West Indies Alumina Co. Jamaica. OL' TED WILLIAMS, HUH? You could just watch it rage. OL' TED WILLIAMS!" See Photos. The stories and biographies quote staff members and associates who say Ted continued to want his remains scattered in the Atlantic, and in the end, Bradlee seemed to conclude that Ted did not want to be frozen.