Intro text
This website is dedicated to our 16 year old son Billy, who was killed in a car accident. Billy, as he was known by all, was from Pearl River, New York. He was a junior at Pearl River High School Billy died April 3, 2003 as a result of head injuries sustained in an automobile accident which happened the day before. Throughout his life, Billy was extremely active athletically. Baseball had become his passion and he was named starting first baseman of the Pearl River High School varsity baseball team, The Pearl River Pirates. Billy had also developed a love for golf, hockey and skiing. He was well-known within our family and among his friends for his light-hearted approach to life, his love of sports, his infectious smile, contagious laugh, and most of all, for his mischievous sense of humor. Billy loved to laugh and to make those around him laugh, and his fun-loving personality left a lasting impression on everyone his life touched. He lived every day to the fullest. Making sure he and his friends enjoyed every minute of each and every day. Billy's favorite day, aside from Christmas, was April Fool's Day. He loved to joke around and play harmless pranks on people. Just the day before the accident he came home from school all excited because it was senior prank day, and even though he was a junior, some of his senior friends let him get in on the action. He went on and on about how they dropped bouncy balls from the skylight into the stairwell and how white rats had been let loose in the school. (Little did I know that he also had a hand in letting the rats loose.) He even wore a sling to his spanish class (he loved to annoy his spanish teacher) and told the teacher he couldn't write because he had hurt his arm. He just neglected to tell her it was an Aprils Fool's joke. (This prank was originally intended for Coach Miller, his baseball coach but Billy knew better). Billy had already started planning for next year when he would be a senior, (and now that the Class of 2004 has graduated, I can say that some very close people in his life followed through with one of his pranks, as close as they could to his original plan.) But that was Billy, always having a good time. Like a quote from his eulogy, "It was as if Billy knew something - living his life as if to say, "I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for a good time."