About Will

William Thomas Visty arrived 43 minutes late to meet his twin sister, Ella Jo.  Will was born with a kind of joyful confidence -- perhaps because of his talents. He could do difficult math in his head, he scaled trees, he was fast on the soccer field.  He LOVED water. He swam in pools, in the lake, in the ocean.  He dove off the dock while catching a football in the air. He rode the wake board, he skied.  And he fished. Oh, how he fished. He fished his lake, he fly-fished the streams of Yellowstone, he fished the ocean.  If the water had fish, he had a pole. 

Will chose outdoors to screens, experiences over things. He was a natural with people because he was fearless. He led kids on marches through high cattails and ditch weeds, in whiffle ball games at dusk, on fishing expeditions at the lake, to go catch frogs, to explore the woods, to get the golf cart stuck.  He ran into high ocean waves and climbed rocks. He staged outdoor sleepovers on the beach, picnic tables and on trampolines.

Younger kids trailed after Will in awe because he played with them, kicked the ball their way, got them lures, showed them how to cast and how to unhook the fish from their rods. He made up games. He spent his evenings staring at the sunset. He lived for nights lit by campfires and stars.

Will could not be embarrassed. Every morning at school drop off his mother yelled I LOVE YOU WILL VISTY from the car window in front of of his classmates at St. Wenceslaus and then the high school boys at Creighton Prep. Will yelled I LOVE YOU MORE, MOM right back. Will showed up at soccer in flip flops and he showed up at baseball games without shoes at all. He once played a baseball game in swim trunks. People laughed at him. He laughed with them. He was generous with his smile and his joy and treated everyone like friends.  His best friends were his siblings, Ella, Reese and Owen and cousin Beau who co-starred in the "Bill and Beau Fishing Show",  the name they gave themselves as they grabbed their poles and nets, and his fellow blonde-haired friends since kindergarten – Sam and Killian, referred to as the Three Amigos.  His friend list was continually growing.

Will always had an understanding for what mattered - It wasn't rules.  It was joy. It was memories. It was experiences. It was family and friends.  He was joyfully, shamelessly charming and funny and lived each day.  He said someday he would have a house in the mountains and a house on the sea, where he could ski and fish and live all the adventures.

Will never got in trouble until he did – until he pushed himself too hard to see how far he could go.   Will passed away over Christmas break on a family vacation to Isla Mujeres, Mexico to fish, snorkel and scuba dive on the reef. He was swimming laps in a shallow pool just to see how many he could do without surfacing for air.  He was 15 years old. He'd finished one semester at his new high school, Creighton Prep, where he planned to try out for the soccer team.  He loved his beaches. He loved his life. ♡