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198resiliencesays. “One friend, his mom worked like two or three jobs. He neverhad a dad. He spent a lot of time with us. My mom really took care ofhim almost as one of her own. . . . Another friend, his mom prettymuch sent him packing right after high school. It was like, literally,the day after high school, she said, ‘You’re out of here. Good luck. Iraised you for this long, and now you’re on your own. My mom said,‘You know, Joe, we’re not going to let you. You can come live withus.’”One day, when Willie was in junior high school and playing ymcabasketball, his mother delivered earth-shattering news: “I want tocoach.”“‘What?!” The news stunned Willie. Mom wasn’t much of anathlete. “She couldn’t dribble a ball; she couldn’t even catch a ball,”Willie says. But he soon realized what the offer was all about; his momwanted to spend time with him. His teammates agreed, and the wife/mother/attorney took on a fourth role: coach. “We’d pretty muchjust scrimmage,” Willie recalls. “There were eight, nine, ten of us. We’djust have enough to practice. It was pretty funny. It wasn’t about hercoaching. It was just about being around us.”By 1986, Norma’s diabetes had worsened. High levels of glucose inthe blood can lead to severe medical problems. Despite the grimreport from the doctor, Norma kept her spirits up: “Like I told thedoctor, she’ll be at the Sonics, the Mariners or up watching ourkids—she’s not going to give up until she has to. And she didn’t,”says Georgiana Kautz. “Even when she was sick as hell, she’d makesure she spent time with me,” says Norma and Billy’s son, Tanu.“When old man Bill died, they came and got me down at the endof the road. When I got down there, it was Norma laying in the road;she’d had a heart attack. And I kept yelling for her to wake up. Andthen we took her to the hospital. Then, it was deterioration. Thekidneys were bad. They would give her blood transfusions. Her kidneyswould give out if you operated on her heart, so it was just a matter oftime.” Three years later, as Norma neared the end, Kautz began