Hi Andrew
On a brighter note after the sad news.
I had the privilege recently of attending Bill's retirement dinner. November 2022. It is now 20 years since he left Concord Hospital in the Aged Care (where we saw each other almost on a daily basis) and moved with Professor Tony Broe to NeuraA.
I was the only one from our medical year present. We had shared quite a few placements and tutorial groups over the years as we had both been students at Sydney Hospital.
I thoroughly enjoyed the speeches which allowed me to catch up with what Bill had been doing. MC was Peter Schofield. There were messages from far and wide from people who were from the families that Bill had tracked and were in the studies. It was very clear how much Bill cared about “his families” with inherited dementias, always went the extra miles literally as those who worked with him know,, and how much they appreciated him over the years of being followed up. There were message from his colleagues both in Australia and USA from DIAN study. People also in the room present at the dinner gave tributes and recalled some stories. If only I had thought to record.
Bill was sitting at a table of friends that went back to his Uni days from St Paul’s College and the “Paulines" provided the entertainment. There was one very emotional tribute from a friend whom he had supported through 4 months of hospitalisation. It was not only as a professional he was devoted but he was a very loyal and thoughtful and trusted friend. What Bill didn’t know was that he was going to be part of the entertainment. The surprised look on his face was amazing when he was asked to come to the piano to accompany the singers whom he had for years accompanied during “Victoriana” performances. I had never attended a performance of Australia’s longest running musical theatre performance “Victoriana" I have attached a u-tube link when they did it virtually because of Covid in 2020.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReR52dy2O8o
I did manage to catch a few short clips showing Bill at the piano accompanying James Bell and then afterwards Peter Cousens (a professional who had played Phantom from 1997/8 and other leading roles in musicals from London to Sydney). The latter clip was small enough to post up, the other on request from Bill (WhatsAp might oblige). Facial 'bandage' appearance is just lighting misplay.
