Turning a tragedy into a triumph.
That’s how the family of William “Billy” Hair, 35, plans to honor the legacy of their son, whose life ended in the crosshairs of a gun over the Memorial Day weekend.
“We are not focusing on the person who killed my brother,” said Matthew Hair, 34, Billy’s younger brother. “We are focusing on Billy’s legacy and helping others deal with such a tragedy. Grief can also be a killer.”
Let’s back up.
At 2:15 a.m. on a recent Saturday in Lake View, William Hair spent the last moments of his life fighting to hold on. In front of him stood a duo of death; a hooded male and a pink-hooded female, wearing masks, quickly exiting a car and just as swiftly shooting him in the chest before driving away.
Mercifully, the last person Billy saw was a beloved best friend, A.J. Mulford, trying to save Billy’s life.
Nothing was stolen, nothing missing. Except, of course, a life.
Not Billy’s watch. Or cellphone. Nor Billy’s messenger bag he carried everywhere — a shoulder tote stuffed with a notebook of restaurant menu favorites, sandwich shop plans, doodles, special sauces and funny “monkeys” quips about human behavior.
The life of William Robert Hair, a popular lead server at Eden restaurant in Avondale, was snuffed out in an instant, his assailants seemingly vaporized as soon as they pulled the trigger.
So it went.
Another Chicago family mired in the misery of street crime and murder, another mother crying in her sleep, another father having to identify a lifeless son, another brother without his best buddy.
Though Billy Hair has died, Sneed is told his life is ending in a special way. His family has chosen to memorialize him by honoring future victims of Chicago violence via a memorial garden foundation they have set up for grieving families.
“The first thing I wanted to do was put in a garden for Billy,” wrote Billy Hair’s mother Margaret Hair. “It was something I planned to do the weekend he was killed. Then, your beautiful article came out” — about planting a special perennial in the garden on behalf of another mother of a slain Chicago son.
“We did the garden today,” Billy’s mom wrote Sneed a week ago, choosing flowers with colors on her eldest son’s favorite T-shirt in front of her Chicago condo. “I just wanted you to know how much it meant to me. Billy loved the city, loved North Pond, loved nature and gardens.
“From your article, one of the things we are looking into doing is memorial gardens for families who have lost children in such a violent way.”
Matthew Hair said his family and close friends have created the William Robert Hair Foundation “to include resources to build lasting memorials to support families affected by fatal gun violence in the Chicagoland area.
“We have started a GoFundMe page and are in the process of setting up a 501(c)(3) charitable organization,” said Hair, whose accounting background will see him in charge of the foundation for the first year. “These lasting memorials will include but not be limited to perennial gardens, trees, plaques, benches, murals in honor of their loved ones.”
The day Billy Hair was killed, he had helped his brother move and transplant “maybe 30 plants I bought during COVID when I was stuck at home,” Matthew Hair said. “It took hours.”
In the early morning hours of the next day, Matthew Hair would join his father William “at the hospital where Billy had been pronounced dead,” he said. “Then, my dad and I went back to my apartment to finish the gardening Billy and I had yet to finish.
“I told my dad the last thing Billy had said to me when he left my apartment was: ‘I love you, Matt.’
“I also told my brother: ‘I love you, Billy’ … And I have that to cherish.”
Margaret Hair now wears a heart necklace made for her by her slain son when he was a child.
“It brings comfort,” she said. “But my sons telling each other how much they meant to each other the day Billy died means everything to me.”
Sneedlings
Saturday birthdays: singer Kendrick Lamar, 36, tennis player Venus Williams, 43, and singer Barry Manilow, 80. Sunday birthdays: soccer player Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang, 34, actress Isabella Rossellini, 71, and singer Paul McCartney, 81.
