“I walked into an arena where the drum was playing. I had on my full regalia. My dad was drumming. The stands were filled with faces of elders I knew that had passed away. When I began to dance, my father turned to me and said, “It’s not your turn to dance!” and I woke up from surgery.”

Thompson told me that story after his heart surgery. He had died on the table but it wasn’t his time. That was ten years ago. Yesterday, he went to dance in the arena and he stayed.

“Before you do ceremony, wake up with the dawn and splash water on your face and pray for the people you will be helping.”

So much wisdom left yesterday. Yesterday I sat and wrote as fast as I could, pages and pages, desperately trying to remember everything he had told me. I didn’t want to forget a single thing. What a gift it was to be a student and friend of his. He was easily the greatest influence on my life.

“When someone dies, you want to leave cornmeal and some water out. Sometimes spirits get hungry and thirsty and they can enter an animal, bird, or insect to eat and drink.”

I took cornmeal and tobacco and put it in the grass and filled a bowl with water. Later, as the sun began to fade behind the towering plateau in the west, I stood outside, restless, and looking for stars. I do not know how long I stood there in the fading light before I realized there was a deer twenty feet from me eating grass near where I put the tobacco and cornmeal. We stood there for a long time. She looked at me several times and was not afraid of me at all. I felt a tremendous sense of peace and thanked the deer and Thompson for their spirits.

After Thompson’s stroke and heart surgery, he asked me to come and write down his memories and ceremonies for his children. Every week that summer Doug and I went and brought him lunch and wrote down how to perform ceremony, how to clear a house, his memories, and so many important spiritual and historical things. So, my training really began, because of course, his children already knew these things. He had done ceremony on me the year before. I helped him do ceremony. And three years later, I would go to Oklahoma and do ceremony on him. He trusted me. Asked me to pray for his children. Told people they could come to me if they needed help. For the past twelve years he was my friend and my mentor. I have notebooks filled. He makes an appearance in all of my books.

“I remember I was asked by an elder if I could do the funeral. That was when I realized that the old ones didn’t know our ceremonies anymore.”

“After I was sick, I felt like no one cared about me and I decided I wasn’t going to keep trying to help people. Then there was a knock at the door and a young man who was down on his luck stood there in the cold and asked for help. I had a winter coat that someone had donated in the trunk of my car. I gave it to him and I decided I would always help people.”

I told him one time that I was thinking of going back to school and getting a job instead of being an herbalist and spiritual leader. He said he didn’t recommend that I do that because there were so many times when people needed his help and he had to work. He wanted me to be available to help people. Thompson loved his family and loved helping people. That is his legacy.

He taught me how to do Talking Circle. He taught me how to build my medicine staff. He told me stories about his parents. And yet, there was probably so much more that I didn’t hear. I will miss the sing song story telling voice that he had. And I will always be thankful I knew him and that he was my friend and I will tell his stories and keep his spirit alive. I will always be available to help people. Just as Thompson wanted.

Rest in Peace Thompson Williams.