If you’ve ever spent time with Rory Williams, you can expect shenanigans, raucous laughter, and probably a story you will not forget.

That is what made it so surprising, the first time we sat down over breakfast in her adopted hometown of Newnan, to find ourselves crying together about the death of her beloved husband, Roy.

Since then, Williams has taken her sorrow, her 50 years of joy with Roy, and her 73 years of living on the edge of fun, and poured them into a memoir called He Just Got There First.

The book is part love story, part grief journal, part stream-of-consciousness visit with a woman who can make readers laugh even while writing about the hardest loss of her life.

“The book starts out sad because I explained what happened and how it happened,” Williams said. “But then there was this ripple effect, as I would write, between midnight and four in the morning.”

That middle-of-the-night writing became the place where Roy’s voice, memories, and humor seemed to come alive again.

“I would sit there at that Mac and Roy was over here going, don’t forget that. Don’t forget that,” Williams said.

A love story before the grief story

Rory and Roy were high school sweethearts from Indiana, married young, and built a life that lasted more than five decades. They had one son, Thom, and a marriage full of teasing, stories, patio talks, bourbon, and laughter.

Williams said Roy had long encouraged her to write.

“He always told me, you need to write the damn book, Rose Mary,” she said. “I’d stomp my foot and say, I don’t know what to write the damn book about. Now I do. Now I did.”

Roy had gone to a regular doctor’s appointment after experiencing pain that did not seem, at first, like heart pain. Doctors found an aneurysm and a tear in his heart.

Surgery followed, but Roy never fully woke up afterward. He suffered several strokes.

Still, Williams said she has come to see even the worst parts of the story through a lens of grace.

“With that aneurysm, honey, your Dad would have died in front of us in seconds,” Williams said she later told Thom. “And that never happened. So when I think about it in those regards, it happened in a very blessed way that I can’t bitch about. God just wanted him early.”

Finding signs, laughter, and God Winks

Williams sees what she calls “God Winks” all around her — Signs, nudges, and moments when she feels Roy is still nearby, still laughing, still poking her in the ribs.

“I talk to Roy all the time saying, you did that, didn’t you?” she said. “He’s pulling pranks from Heaven on me.”

Those moments fill the book, along with the kind of humor that made their marriage their own.

“I had a dear friend tell me, the more we can talk about this, the more alive they still are in our hearts and in our souls,” Williams said. “And that encompasses twisted humor in many cases, and it’s okay.”

The result is not a polished grief manual. It is something more personal: musings from a zany mind, written for someone who may be walking the same road.

“They’re not alone,” Williams said of the message she hopes readers take away.

A book, and maybe a bigger mission

Williams does not see the book as the end of the story. She sees it as a beginning.

She is already planning book signings, talks, and workshops, including programs for widows, church groups, 55-plus communities, and organizations where people may need permission to laugh while grieving.

“The book is a springboard to that,” Williams said. “All of us that are in this damn club we wanted no membership in, there’s a comfort of being there together and talking about it and laughing about it.”

She wants those gatherings to be interactive, giving others room to share their own stories, signs, and memories.

“I want them to tell me what God Winks they’ve gotten, what Signs they’ve gotten,” Williams said. “Because it is continual for me.”

For readers who know Williams, the book will feel like coffee with Rory. For readers who do not, it may feel like being invited to sit beside someone who has survived something devastating without surrendering her joy.

“I know God’s got me,” Williams said. “I know truly God’s got me. Or I wouldn’t be able to put one foot in front of the other.”

And in true Rory fashion, she is still putting one foot in front of the other — toward laughter, toward connection, and toward helping others believe love does not end just because one person got there first.

For more information about Rory and her book visit,  https://HeJustGotThereFirst.com.

Ellie White-Stevens

Ellie White-Stevens is the Editor of The Citizen and the Creative Director at Dirt1x. She strategizes and implements better branding, digital marketing, and original ideas to bring her clients bigger profits and save them time.