Robin was Matt’s favorite comedian and an organization that grants terminally ill children their wishes contacted Robin with Matt’s request to talk to him. Robin agreed with one stipulation. He asked that we not share his kind gesture. We were not close to Robin. And after the conversations and Matt’s death I had no other contact with him.
It was a kind act by a star to an unknown child far away. Yet, I always had in the back of my mind meeting him one day to thank him personally for what it meant to Matt, and to me. That day will not come. What has come to me in the past twenty-four hours is a flood of memories around that time in Matt and my life. We were down to just us. His little brother had died. His mother had died. And he was keenly aware that outside of some miracle he was to die.
The sparkle in Matt’s eye when he was on the phone with Robin was magical. I didn’t listen in on the conversation. I stood next to Matt in his nonchalant pleasure and laughter as they shared jokes.
There are so many accolades whirling around the life of Robin Williams. He was a brilliant man with a luminous heart. He was gifted beyond belief and with every gift there is a price. Robin paid the ultimate price, but along the way he shared his gift freely.
The one gift I will always treasure did not happen on the stage or screen. It came in a couple of private phone calls to my child. It came in the radiant joy Robin gave Matt from a luminous heart. It comes in the memory of a man who took the time to step away from his personal and professional life to make a child’s dream come true. It comes from laughter shared from an open heart to a broken heart. It comes by remembering the kindness of Robin and the joy he gave to the world, and especially to Matt.
