Posted May 20th, 2003 by Michelle

Christmas of 1987 might of been the worst of my life. The only thing I asked for, a bird cage, was faithfully delivered even though my mom was selling original works of art just to pay the rent. The bird cage, when I opened it, became a symbol of my life, one which was fifteen years old and filled with misery and angst born out of a terrible divorce (and, truth be told, regular fifteen-year-old unhappiness). But then I got to open one of the presents to the whole family, sent from Kent and Melissa in Iowa. I tore off the paper to find a sweet little picture frame, and inside, a picture of my first nephew Sean.

I always thought Sean Patrick would be blessed, since his namesake was (and is) my life-long hero. Every time I see him again I am astounded at his intelligence, his humor, his very Williams-ness, and mostly, how freaking cool he is. Cooler than most of us Williams could ever hope to be. And when i was all of fifteen years old, absolutely beside myself thinking my life would always be this bad, a tiny picture of my beautiful nephew made all of the difference. I ignored the rest of my presents (particularly the cage) and did nothing but stare at what was the most beautiful child I had ever seen. That picture, in some random strange way, gave me hope. I must of known the terrific man he would one day be, and somehow, even for a few minutes, everything was going to be okay.