March 5, 2010 Just before he became a father, Colbert Williams left home because his family was too poor to take care of him. As he remembers it, "My mother didn’t have a place for me to go."
Williams and his son discussed their strong bond at StoryCorps in Michigan. But in a "prequel" of sorts, Williams also spoke with the man who took him in as a teenager — his fifth-grade math teacher, Ralph Catania.
Catania, 69, was divorced and had no children of his own. He became Williams’ legal guardian when his former student turned 16.
"Was there anything that you feared about moving in with me?" Catania asked.
"Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?" Williams said. "Everything."
And he really does mean everything — from what kind food Catania kept in the house to his culture and background. All Williams really knew about the man he was moving in with was that he was a nice teacher.
"I’m a young black man and you’re a white man," Williams said. "And I’m like, ‘I don’t know anything about white people.’ "
Then Williams asked Catania about his thoughts after learning that Williams, then 16, was going to become a father. CONTINUED
