My name is William Carlos Ragan, and I was born in Montclair, Virginia. I was named after William Carlos Williams, a lesser known East Coast poet. I love to read and write in my spare time, and consider myself a life-long learner. I moved to Texas when I was young when my parents came back to help care for my Grande’s Alzheimer’s. I may not be a native but I have whole heartedly embraced Texan culture and am proud to say I reside in the small Texas town of Floresville, south of San Antonio.

I enjoy playing basketball, soccer, and paintball. I enjoy lifting weights, catching up on the latest Star Wars literature, and working on my car. I am privileged enough to work as an English tutor in a bilingual Pre-K classroom.

I attend the University of Texas at Austin studying Marketing in the McCombs School of Business, and love both the community and the school. I would not be the man I am today were it not for my friends, family, and loved ones and to them I am forever grateful.

Many people in my life have been influenced by the wide reaching sphere that is cancer. When the disease strikes it not only afflicts the patient but their family and the entire community. I ride for one such case. My grandfather’s mother, my great-grandmother Hortense Delbridge Vinyard suffered from breast cancer. Though I never met my Momma Tensy I always heard about her legend from the rest of my family. Momma Tensy was a headstrong single parent born in the 1900s. She was diagnosed with cancer in her 70s after she had retired, but had a double mastectomy and lost both breasts to the cancer. Her influence was felt throughout her community but was manifest most profoundly through her only son, my grandfather, George. A. Vinyard. By far, the person who has had the most significant influence on me is my grandfather, George A. Vinyard. This may sound cliché, but it is as far from it as possible. My grandfather has Alzheimer’s disease and has been steadily becoming less of himself and more of a child ever since I’ve known him. Now, people who know a little about my particular situation may ask how I’m qualified to make this assessment since my grandfather was diagnosed before I was even old enough to know or truly remember him, but from stories from his children and little gleams that show through the dementia I know he is still one hell of a man. He hasn’t directly influenced me; so much as his examples have inspired me.

We call my grandfather “Grande,” not because he is that big of a man (he is stout and strong even in old age, but was never a giant), but because of his enormous presence of will. He was born in the Rio Grande Valley, and spoke Spanish before he learned English. Language was never a problem for him, but he did have trouble when people ignored morals and acted as though nothing had authority over them. In the days when he was more cognitive, he stood by his beliefs like no other man alive and would come after you if he thought you were in the wrong. While not all of his views were tolerant (he had an issue with the Catholic Church over internationally condemning contraceptives because he believed that such a policy just created more mouths than people could afford to feed and over our local church not treating non-Catholics with the same respect they treated their members, despite being a faithful Christian himself; he was and to this day hates the color burnt orange because it was the color of his alma mater’s archrival, the University of Texas), he steadfastly believed they were the right thing. He was active in the school board and the community against issues from segregation to biased playing time for athletes with rich parents. Grande worked hard every day of his life to provide for his family and keep all of his six in line. Grande was nice to everyone, and believed in being positive as much as possible. Some would argue that he had to be considering the line of business he was in, owning his own funeral home in a small town. He only had one competitor, but in a rural area customers go to the people they remember as nice not necessarily as professional. Grande made his living on always being professional and respectful of others, and always treated everyone equally regardless of their financial status. And dealing with death and loss every waking hour of his life, Grande couldn’t have lived the life he did without something to fall back on. His steadfast optimism never caused him to take that which was most precious to him for granted. He always loved his family and told them so at every opportunity he got. My mom told me a story once that Grande had taken her into the prep room of the funeral home to see the mangled body of a teen killed while drinking and driving to make a point to her. His methods may have been unorthodox, but no one in the world loved his family more or wanted so desperately to make sure they weren’t taken from him. Even before Grande had a family of his own, Grande looked out for the best interests of his family. He was raised by a single mother and had to take on many of the responsibilities of the man of the house at an early age. The extra responsibility didn’t stop Grande from getting into college and pursuing higher education. Grande selflessly put his education on hold to go fight for our freedom in World War II and the Korean War. After the war he had the diligence to go back to school and get his B.S. in business and morticians degree, because he knew he would need them to provide for his family the way his mother had for him.

My Grande’s example has had the most profound influence on my life by far, because he gives me a goal to strive for each and every day. I may never be able to live a life that measures up to my Grande’s, but I can use his positive examples to better my own every day. I think of Grande and I try to be nice to everyone, work hard at everything that I do, tell my family that I love them each time before we part (because you never know when the last time you’re going to see your loved ones is), try to be optimistic about every day, and above all else never compromise my beliefs. I ride for my Grande not because cancer afflicted him directly, but because cancer changed his life and mine in turn. I know that many of the people I meet through Texas 4000 will have similar stories to share, and I am thrilled to be able to share and learn from their experiences.