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printer-friendly version| This article was originally featured in OH Magazine. Click here to learn more. |
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| By Nikki Johnson |
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?Life is not a continuum of pleasant choices, but of inevitable problems that call for strength, determination and hard work.? William C. Elijah epitomizes this Indian proverb. William, known to many as ?Big Will,? has overcome many problems in his 38 years, among them a high weight of 544 pounds. William was born and raised in Detroit, a city with a rich musical heritage. Early on it became clear that William had a gift for music. His list of instruments reads like a music store catalog, but his main talents are his trumpet, his voice and the expressiveness of his body while performing. While William?s instruments are many, the real music in William?s life springs from his enthusiasm, strength and determination. William is a very upbeat person. There is an honesty and energy in his voice when he speaks. However, just six years ago, William had reached a very low point in his life. He lost three dear loved ones in one short year. During that emotionally trying period, he began a transformation process that would lead to self-discovery, a remarkable 313-pound weight loss and a new lease on life. William?s transformation began with the death of his grandfather in August 1998, a loss that was closely followed by the sudden death of his mother in October of the same year. As William sat at his mother?s funeral with his wife, Patricia, by his side, he thought back on the things his mother had taught him through the years. Comparing her to Ray Charles? mother in the movie ?Ray,? William described how strong she had been in every life situation. In particular, she displayed strength when she split from William?s father.He was a heroin addict who, because of his own choices, had not been there for her or for their children. At 54 years of age, his mother was gone. A few short months later, William buried his beloved wife. Patricia suffered the devastating effects of cancer for nine months. William was her sole caregiver through the worst of her illness until the day she passed away. ?I can tell you what I did that day,? he says, ?All I did was eat. I had two whole pizzas and a liter of Coke?and that was just one meal. Food was my medication. Mentally, I thought back on her nine months of suffering. I don?t drink or do drugs, so food was all I had to help me cope.? At Patricia?s funeral, the seat next to him felt strikingly empty. ?She sat by me at my mother?s funeral  looking at her own mortality, and she was so strong.? He knew he had to find that strength for the sake of their 1-year-old son. ?Grieving hurts ? you can never get them back. You have to ask yourself what their life was worth. Will you take that on yourself?? William decided that he would ?scrape up, grab and hold their strength? and make it his own.In spite of his pain and escalating weight, William smiled and danced his way through his shows with his band, the Sun Messengers, who are the house band for the NBA champion Pistons. He sang and played, giving every performance all he had to give. He felt he had to be a crowd pleaser. He explains, ?As a big guy and an entertainer, you have to be the extra life of the party, which means I had to put it on double. To keep people?s attention off my weight, I used humor.? Because of his great talent and hard work, his music career grew. As time went on, he found healing from some of the pain of his lost and found new love with a woman named Teresa. William proposed and the two married on April 27, 2002. Even with a new marriage and a blooming career, William turned to food as a way to cope with the stresses of life. Sesame chicken, popcorn and cake were among his favorites, and he was able to eat amazingly large quantities. ?That is what people do,? William says, ?People substitute one thing for another?drugs or sex or food or whatever.? He had always been a big man, and, like so many others, he had tried many methods of weight loss. He tried LA Weight Loss (losing 85 pounds), medical weight loss (75 pounds) and continued to yo-yo diet for 10 years. No matter how much he lost or how much he tried, over time he just kept on gaining. Eventually, he weighed 544 pounds.
William decided that weight loss surgery was the tool he needed to turn his health around, and with his characteristic drive, humor and positive attitude, he approached this new opportunity determined to do whatever he had to do to make it work. He entrusted himself to the care of Liv-Lite?s Dr. Keith Marshall. He told the doctors and nurses who wheeled him in to have his open Roux-en-Y on June 30, 2003, ?I?m in God?s hands, but he has put me into yours. And if you bring me back to my family, I will do everything you tell me to do, plus! You want me to eat sawdust? I?ll eat it. Exercise? No problem.? William did not feel entitled to success, instead, when he woke up, he felt truly blessed: ?That is such a precious moment.? William says. ?You have got to do everything in your power to pay the price for coming through.? So William worked to lose the weight and keep it off. He surrounded himself with people who would provide encouragement and accountability, and he learned how to make healthy choices. Some of his biggest weight loss supporters were the friends he made at the gym. They encouraged him to keep working out and pointed out areas still needing improvement, asking, ?When are you going to have that skin removed?? William would shrug. He would ?cross that bridge? when he came to it. It isn?t like he hadn?t noticed the skin?how could he miss it? His friends continued to remind him of his situation and even urged him to audition for a nationally syndicated makeover show. William decided to go for it, and while he didn?t make the cut, he did resolve that he would only live with his sagging skin if he had to, even though he knew he could never afford plastic surgery on his own. Eventually his resolve paid off. After perusing William?s book of amazing before and after photographs, Dr. Nate Pham of the Complete Makeover Center in Detroit and Dr. Craig Golden of the Cosmetic Dentistry Institute gave him a free surgical makeover, fixing everything from his ?apron, bat-wings and man-boobs? to his now straight and sparkling teeth. He loved the attention that his transformation inspired. He also loves shopping for clothes right off the rack. ?I don?t discriminate at all,? he says, ?It is like, what can we get into today?? Well, he did discriminate about one store, even when he had man-boobs to worry about: ?I didn?t want to shop at Victoria?s Secret!? Thanks to his plastic surgery, he won?t have to. William now weighs about 210 pounds. He keeps exercises regularly and participates actively in his family life. His 7-year-old son, William (affectionately known as ?Little Will?) in William?s words, ?is trying to make it to 8,? and William and Teresa are enjoying watching him grow. He also keeps a vigorous performance schedule, playing 250 ?gigs? per year with his band of 19 years. He has started his own music production company and is active helping other up-and-coming acts establish themselves in the music scene. He has released a solo album entitled ?Crowd Pleeza.? And, after of years of battling his weight, he now looks fantastic in his size-36 pants. ?Many people don?t realize that the two years of weight loss are for developing the right habits and mindset,? he says. ?I have tons of struggles. My mind wants to tell me that I am normal, but I?m not. I can?t make the same choices other people may be able to make about food. I?m still hungry every hour. It is still an addiction. Some days I win, some days I don?t, but I am smart enough to keep good foods around and, most importantly, to be honest with myself. That is my eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not jive thyself.? This honesty pays off during his daily drive through his own Detroit ?Bermuda Triangle??the intersection of Woolward and Davidson where all of his favorite restaurants are located. He says, ?My car shakes like it is in a turbulent storm whenever I drive through there. I tell myself that if I stop, I will go back to where I was. I have to choose each day not to go back. It is a constant fight, and this is where the real work begins.? The work sometimes means making tough choices?even in safe environments. He recently attended a support group party that featured a moist and beautiful sugar-free sheet cake. When the program manager offered him a slice, he declined. ?One taste would put me into a tailspin.? He explains, ?Food textures, words, emotions ? they all bring back those desires. I would eat half of the cake and drink a gallon of milk.? William says, ?I go for life like I am never going to breathe again.? He explains, ?I was taught this story a long time ago about a kid in an African village who wanted to know the secret of life. He went to the old sage in the village and asked him. The old man didn?t say anything. He got up, grabbed the kid?s hand and walked him up the road and right into the river. The young boy was wondering what was going on. They kept on walking as the water got higher and higher and higher. Pretty soon, it was over the boy?s head. Then the sage took the boy?s head and held it under water. The boy was kicking and screaming and trying to get to the surface, until finally the sage pulled him up and walked back. The kid asked, ?What was that for?? The sage asked him, ?What did you want most?? The kid said, ?I wanted to breathe!? The sage responded, ?That is what you have to want out of life. You?ve got to want it like you want to breathe .?? Visit www.bigwillonline.com to learn more about inspirational "Big Will." |
Even at over 500 pounds, Big Will had not yet realized just how big he was. His awakening came when he went to pick up the custom clothes he had made to wear for the cover of his first album. When the seamstress came downstairs, and William asked whose clothes she had in her arms. ?They?re yours,? she replied. William didn?t believe her at first?the clothes were enormous; they had to belong to one of her ?heavy? friends. But then it hit him: ?Immediately, right there, I just broke down, because for the first time, I finally saw myself. I realized that I had to do something. My mom passed from being heavy, and what was on her death certificate kind of shook my world, too: ?Massive heart attack, due to morbid obesity.? ?
