I think to understand Wil Lawson, we need to rewind back to 2016. I was brand new to Alaska and had just been stationed there by the military. As it happens, I was also getting into photography- like big time. It turns out, some years later, I would switch to being a photographer full-time. But that is for another post.
Sometime that year, and I really can’t remember when (sorry) I hosted a First-Friday event in Fairbanks. If you live under a rock and don’t know what a “First Friday” is- let me give you the breakdown: these are pop-up events where an artist hosts their work at a given location for a month or so. You can be a potter (is that the right way to call someone who makes pots? oh well) or you could be a musician or a photographer like me. (oh and let me go ahead and say that I have decided to omit care for grammar and punctuation here… I do that enough as it is in school.)
Back to the point: I was a photographer hosting some of my early work at this coffee shop in downtown Fairbanks. River City Cafe was the name. About an hour or so into the event, this tall bald dude and his black friend (who is now one of my best friends) walk in. And that was the day I met Wil Lawson.
I was young, like under 21 young. Wil was old, like 40ish years old. Wil and his black friend (who I will call Austin- ’cause that’s his real name) began a friendship with me. We would bullshit around Fairbanks, going to coffee shops and cracking up about inside jokes and what not. Wil had this spirit to him, something that caught my attention. He was this flamboyant character and didn’t really care what others thought of him. There are many ways to describe Wil, but you really had to know this guy, I mean really know the intricacies of what made Wil so special.
Wil, Austin, and I used to sit at this coffee shop in Fairbanks called “The Venue.” Wil was crazy about this place I mean really crazy about it, he spent almost as much time there as he did anywhere else. I mean the guy practically lived there. It was his place. The Venue was Wil’s. Sadly, the Venue closed down- but I will get to that.
We used to sit there for hours with our iPads, day-trading penny stocks and acting like millionaires. Wil had this energy about him- almost obsessive in everything he did. When Wil found a new hobby or passion, everything was redirected into that thing- I mean the guy was just like I am with stuff. The ‘change the twitter bio because I am into AI’ sort of thing. That was Wil, and that was one of the aspects I liked most.
There are many, many stories like this. Wil once took me to Denali National Park on the road lottery system. We spent 8 hours in the park- taking photographs of mountains and bears and anything else. In fact, one of the photos of Denali that I captured on that trip went on to win a national award- and, to this date, is my best-selling image.
Wil had this sign above his door at his house: “it’s never too late to start the day over.” This message helped me a lot during those years of my early 20s. Breakups with girls I had met as a young soldier, getting picked up because I was too drunk to drive and was also underage- so I could not go back to the barracks. And before I get some hate- underage drinking in the Infantry is probably the most common thing next to waking up every day. We all did it, some more than others 😉 I remember when I turned 21, Wil took me to every bar in Fairbanks (which isn’t super wild because Fairbanks is kinda small.) Good times.
Life, well it gets busy. We forget to check on people, we make excuses, and we sometimes live in our worlds. That was Wil and I near the end. Yes, the end. In early 2023 I got a phone call that Wil was really sick. In fact, Wil had been sick for some time- and I didn’t really know it. We weren’t as close around this time- not to anyone’s fault albeit, the guilt of not talking to Wil as much during these final moments has taken a while to get over and will probably be there forever. In Wil’s positive mind, he was going to battle this illness that had taken everyone by surprise. I still don’t really know what Wil had, aside from major issues with his liver. Wil went in for an appointment, something happened, and a few days later he was gone.
The weird thing about losing people in this age is that we have so many records of them on social media. Messages, images, the whole nine yards- all saved up in the cloud. The photo above of Wil, guess what- I had JUST found it buried in one of my servers at home- inspired me to make this post.
There is a whole lot more to say but also not really much else. Wil was one of the greatest friends I’ve ever known. His sudden departure from this life reminds me each day to sip the coffee a little slower and remember that we are all but a blink in the span of a very, very long story.
Thanks, Wil.
Leave a Reply