Chapter 2
Joseph Thomas Williams, known to most people as “Joe”, was born in San Francisco to Sarah Rebecca (Martin) and Thomas John Williams III.
His mother, Sarah had come from a broken home in New York City. Her mother was only seventeen when Sarah was born. Sara never knew her father, as he disappeared before Sarah was born. Sarah’s grandparents constantly reminded her mother what terrible mistakes she had made with her life. Sara’s mother could not handle their constant negative remarks and she turned to alcohol and drugs, to block them out.
When Sarah was twelve, her mother died from an accidental overdose and Sarah’s grandparents reluctantly took in Sarah. They did it out of obligation rather than love. They would never let Sarah forget the mistakes her mother had made and constantly reminded Sara that her mother was no good.
Sarah mentally blocked her grandparents out, by putting all of her effort and concentration into her schoolwork. All of her hard work and determination paid off. She received a four-year scholarship to Harvard University. The day after high school graduation, she left her grandparent’s house and never returned.
Joe’s father, Thomas John Williams III was the son of a wealthy family in Providence, Rhode Island. He had everything he could ever wish for while growing up. He had a nanny, as well as the cook and housekeeper, to watch over him. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, as the saying goes.
Tom also attended Harvard University. His grades were not high enough to get a scholarship, but who needs a scholarship when your family has money.
It was at Harvard, where Tom met Sarah. They started dating and fell madly in love. After dating for a year, Tom proposed marriage and Sarah accepted. When Tom took Sarah home to meet his parents, it was a disaster. When Tom’s father found out about Sarah’s family, he told Tom that if he married her, he would be cut off from the family and his inheritance. Tom thought his father was just bluffing. He and Sarah really wanted to be married and eloped two weeks later. They thought his father would accept the marriage since it was now official.
When Tom’s father found out about the marriage, he was very angry. He cut Tom off from the family and stopped funding Tom’s college expenses. Tom became so angry, that he and Sarah moved as far away from his parents as they could.
Sarah was able to get her scholarship transferred to Stanford University in California.
Tom, however, had no scholarship and no money, so he had to drop out of school and get a job. Since he had worked with computers before, he found a job working for a new computer company called Microsoft. As Tom’s skills grew, he moved up in the company and he bought as much stock in the company as he could. It turned out that Tom was a computer genius.
Three years after they were married, Tom and Sarah were blessed with a son whom they named Joseph Thomas Williams. As Joey got older, his parents saw that he was very intelligent. They put him in a school for gifted students. When he was six years old, Joe became fascinated by the stock market and started giving his dad stock tips. By the time Joe was ten, he was handling his parent’s stock portfolio. Joe skipped through a couple of grades and graduated from high school before he was sixteen. At age sixteen, he had the maturity of an adult.
By this time, Tom had opened his own computer company that he named SaraCom. Joe worked part time with him, while going to college full time. With Joe’s handling of their stocks and investments, and the stock share prices of Microsoft skyrocketing, Tom and his family were worth more than fifty million dollars.
Sarah had graduated from Stanford University with a degree in nursing. After graduating, she got a job at San Francisco General Hospital working as an obstetrics nurse. She did not have to work, as they did not need the money, but Sarah loved helping people and she loved being a nurse.
When Joe’s parents were killed, Joe inherited everything, the stocks, the house and SaraCom Company. He became CEO and president of the company. He let the vice president of the company handle the day-to-day operations, while he finished college. Joe wanted to maintain a low profile. He still worked at the company part time, but only a few people knew that he owned the company. Through his lawyer, Joe was able to be a private millionaire. After the death of his parents, Joe had to grow up fast and deal with everything in his life. At this point in his life, Joe was no longer a kid. His childhood was behind him.
To Love, Honor and Cherish Page 2