“I went to live with my grandparents when I was 13. They were like my parents. They raised me as their son. And I helped take care of them until the end. I would go with them to their appointments in Houston, and there were a lot of them. But I made sure they never missed them. They both passed away from cancer. My grandpa had thyroid cancer and my grandma had leukemia. It got them pretty fast.

“For a long time, I felt lost. It was kind of like when they cut a person’s finger off, they still think it’s there. They still feel it. I would wake up saying, ‘Hey, mama and papa,’ but they weren’t there. I was pretty sad for a while. But then I was like, you know, they’re not struggling anymore. They’re not suffering anymore. They wouldn’t want me to be sad. They would want me to continue trying to better myself in life.

“If you have a dream, you have to work to make it come true. It’s not going to happen just like that. People don’t sell houses sitting down. You’ve got to go out there and work for it. Sometimes it takes patience. Sometimes you have to go through hell and high water to reach your goal. But in the end, it will be worth it.”

— Barron Williams

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“Working as a millwright in the chemical plant all those years, and being on my feet for 10, 12, sometimes 16 hours a day, I couldn’t hardly do it anymore. Once you lose your cartilage, it ends up being bone on bone. The pain gets pretty bad. They try different things, like giving you shots in there, and it lasts for maybe a few days. For some people they say it lasts a year, and then they come back to get another shot. But I wasn’t that lucky. I had my right knee replaced in 2008. It’s been great so far, knock on wood. But the other one’s pretty bad now.

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“One of my former coworkers at Whataburger is 65. He has a really kind heart. He’s a really generous guy. He raised two grandsons for years, but one recently passed away.

“They both suffered from muscular dystrophy and were confined to wheelchairs. Every day he would go home and wait by the bus stop to pick them up. He just took care of them. You’ve got to have a really pure heart to do something like that.

“So after I learned that one of the boys passed away, I thought it was an opportunity for me to do a kind deed. I drew this portrait for him.

“I find the purest joy in doing projects like this. Knowing that it isn’t about money, it’s just about me doing something nice for another person. It’s about being kind to people, man.

“Art touches all parts of the world. I am living proof of that. I truly believe that the hands can help mend a person’s heart.”

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“We play quite a bit of golf together. It’s the challenge that every time you go out there, you want to hit a better shot. Once you hit a good shot, you just keep going. You’ll have your bad times, but it’s the good times you remember most.”

Who is the better golfer?
“He beats me every time, although I did get him once by four strokes.”

“He had a good day and I had a bad day.”

“Actually, he had a bad day and I just played normal.”

— Chuck Harris and Peyton Campas

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“When my grandson was a sniper in Afghanistan, I lived in fear every day. It’s one thing to be a parent of a warrior, it’s another thing to be a grandmother. It just about tore me apart.

“I dealt with it by writing a book, “One Day at a Time.” It was a journal covering every day, from a few days before he left to all the way through his return home.

“I would sit at the computer and write my thoughts, sometimes boo-hoo and sometimes overjoyed that we’d heard from him and things were good. It was like going to a psychiatrist. It really helped me, and my husband, get through it.”

— Susan Custer

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“My father’s name was Frank and I’m Frank No. 2. My son is Frank No. 3 and this is my grandson, Frank No. 4.

“Keeping the name going is really meaningful. Hopefully, he’ll have a family one day and a son, Frank No. 5.”

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“We’re getting ready to be grandparents for the first time.”

“Every time I talk about it, I get goose pimples. Because we’ve raised two daughters and now we’re going to have a grandson, and he’ll be named after me. I’m Pat and he’ll be Patrick. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

“It just shows how much our daughter and son-in-law think of my husband. He’s been a great dad and he’s a great father-in-law, so they want to honor him. At least, that’s what we think.”

— Wanda and Pat Mooney

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