ORLANDO, Fla.--
“This is going to be his year,” Cheryl Williams says. She is looking at pictures scattered across her living room table in her Davenport, Fl home.
“We’ve got a whole memory board here to work on putting together.”
She’s excited for the future, cherishes the past, but there’s no time like the present.
“I don’t necessarily need the pictures as a reminder, because I carry him with me every where I go in my heart,” she says while holding up a picture of her son.
“I’m very proud of Dexter. Don’t think a mom could be more proud.”
Cheryl’s son is former Notre Dame running back Dexter Williams. She holds up a picture of Dexter after scoring a touchdown last season. He is pointing to the woman wearing his number two jersey in the crowd.
“I think of all the pictures this is my favorite,” she says. “That’s because every time he made a touchdown and I was there he would always run over to the side and let me know this one’s for you momma.”
They appreciate every moment they have together, because you never know how many you are going to have left.
Back in West Orlando, Dexter is working out a few days before reporting to Green Bay Packers training camp.
“Just got to keep on moving,” Dexter says as he loads up some weight for squats.”
The Packers selected Dexter in the 6th round with the 194th overall pick.
“It feels unreal every day I wake up and be like wow I’m playing for the Green Bay Packers.”
His trainer is former NFL linebacker Michael Lockley. He is pushing Dexter for every rep.
“He really is a work horse of a back,” Lockley says. “His goal this off season was to get even stronger even bigger.”
“3-2-ready!” Lockley yells as Dexter attempts something new. A 700 pound back squat.
“Yeahhhh!” Dexter screams as he finishes the rep.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Lockley says. Clearly the hard work is paying off.
“Whoever takes this chance on me they going to get 100% Dexter Williams who’s all in,” Dexter says. “Who’s going to give his all each and every play and who’s going to win games and win Super Bowls.”
It’s an opportunity that looked impossible last season when Dexter was suspended for violating team rules the first four games of his senior year.
“I told my teammates first, and then my parents, and I took it upon myself to start making sacrifices.”
That meant a new roommate. Someone that could push and motivate him. That someone was mom.
“I told her I said mom I want you to come up in August and stay with me for my whole fall season just to see me finish out everything and graduate.”
“I went. Yeah moved in with him," Cheryl says. "So I was the girl in the house. But it gave me an opportunity to see him grow.”
Cheryl lived with Dexter for his senior year, but had to come back to Florida for her doctors appointments.
“I missed a lot of his high school playing because I was sick a lot… in and out of the hospital.”
Cheryl suffers from a rare auto immune disease called Myasthenia Gravis.
“There are days when I’m really really pretty, but then there are days when I have a myasthenia flare up my speech will slur, I can barely open my eyes, can’t use my hands, can’t walk.”
For most of Dexter’s life she was able to manage her symptoms. Until one day his sophomore year of high school she went to sleep and didn’t wake up.
“Usually my mom is around the house she’s singing laughing or just in the room like on the computer watching TV and when I came home she was still in the bed. It wasn’t normal.”
Dexter called his dad then 911.
“When the ambulance finally got there they took her out on a stretcher,” Dexter remembers. “It’s a memory that I won’t forget. Sometimes it plays over and over in my head.”
Cheryl had slipped into a coma. She was taken to a hospital where she remained in that state for three months. Then she woke up.
“I didn’t know where I was, why I was tied to the bed. I just know Dexter was standing beside the bed,” Cheryl remembers.
“When she was able to come out of the coma I was like wow I need to make the best of it because not many of us are given second chances,” Dexter says.
That’s why every moment, every touchdown they share is so special. The summer before Dexter’s senior year at Notre Dame Cheryl was also diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension. A degenerative condition that affects the heart and lungs. Doctors estimate she might only have 5 years to live.
“We try not to look at it like that,” Dexter says. Just really to appreciate each and every day that we are blessed with and just continue to take it day by day.”
They’ve created all these memories together and they are not done yet.
“Everything I’ve ever asked God for he’s given it to me,” Cheryl says while looking at her pictures from the last year. “I asked him to let me live long enough to see him play and play professional and he’s kept me up until now and I’m going to get the opportunity to do that. So believe me I will be seated on the sidelines. Rain or shine, I’ll be there. He’ll be looking for me.”