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Boston's Jack Williams and "Wednesday's Child"

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(page 3 of 4)

"There was this one little boy. It was the only time I almost didn't tape. He had both hands on the doorknob. He took one look at me and he started hitting his head on the wall. I said, 'I can't put this on TV.' Finally, you saw the little boy sitting on the ground, mumbling. I was so curious. I said to the social worker, 'I want to know who adopts this kid.' She called me after he'd been adopted by a family in North Attleboro. I went to see them. It was a humble house. A sign outside said, 'Welcome Jack Williams.' And inside there was a second sign: 'We love Wednesday's Child.' I go in and the kid had started writing words on a computer. 'Hi, Jack Williams.' I said, 'What are we doing?' He types, 'WBZ-TV4, the station New England trusts.'

"At that moment I said to myself, I will never judge anyone again on a first impression. Never again."

If you're having a bad day, or a bad month, spend some hours watching the "Wednesday's Child" tapes. Your worries about that balky car or the leaky roof or your kid who is goofing off in English class will wash away as child after child talks to you across the years.

Paul is 14. He has lived more than half his life in foster homes. It's hard to move, he says. You start getting used to someone and then, poof -- you're gone.... Hi folks. It's Michael here. I like a family that doesn't give up on me.... Gus is 11 years old. Now that I'm going to be on "Wednesday's Child," a good family will pick me out and I'll stay. I hope that I will be happy with them for the rest of my life.

I think I can be very good. I'd be nice and I wouldn't lie a lot. I wouldn't pick on the other person that was living there. I would try and be a nice kid, really. I just want a family to keep me for the rest of my life.... Dennis at 13 playing catch with Williams: I could be a good son. I'm at my grade level. I'm active. I'd just be there when they need me. The faces go on and on and on. More boys than girls. More Hispanic and black than white. Many eventually find families. Many do not. Today there are about 1,000 children in Massachusetts foster care who are legally free for adoption. Jack Williams long ago made his peace with the math -- so many children, not enough Wednesdays.

"Imagine the impact for generations to come if you give hope and love to just one child," he says. And then he tells a story, one that he says is his favorite of all the happy stories. He says there was a boy named Angel, and he was being starved to death.

The tape is from February 1992. On it an 11-year-old boy is at the Stoughton fire station with Williams. Angel weighs only 49 pounds. This is a boy who needs lots of love, lots of nurturing, Williams says. He asks the boy, What kind of guy are you?

I'm part Puerto Rican and part Irish. I like to help people. I already know what I'm going to be when I grow up -- a doctor or a therapist ... All I need is an adoptive home.

That day, Mary Beth Carmody came home early from her job as an attorney in the U.S. attorney's office to her house in Framingham. She turned on the television just as Angel appeared. "I thought I was watching my kid," she recalls. "I immediately called [the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange] and kept getting a busy signal. I ran out to get groceries and called back. They said they were getting so many calls, there would be an informational meeting in two weeks. I thought to myself, 'They will never give this kid to a single parent.'"