ORLANDO, Fla. — Jodi Bainter still has the special text messages saved on her cell phone. The long, emotional messages are from a contact saved simply as ‘Bill’ on the screen.
The Bainters had a first-name-only relationship with Bill Hansbury.
Bill, known to many friends as "Boston Bill," lost his right leg to a staph infection. His amputation was just below the knee. He was always an avid athlete and was determined not to let the loss of a limb slow him down.
That’s what caught Jake Bainter’s attention.
“I miss him a lot,” he said from his Orlando home. “I honestly think about him every single day.”
Boston Bill ran in the Boston Marathon 14 times. He lived in St. Petersburg and was known as the “Mayor of Beach Drive.” He rode his bicycle 20 miles per day.
It unexpectedly broke down at just the right time.
“He was put there for us at that moment for what we needed,” said Jodi.
In February 2008, the Bainters were on the way to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg from Orlando. Jake, then just 7, was about to have his right leg amputated. The injuries from a lawn mower accident three years earlier hadn’t improved, even after 15 surgeries.
The ride over to the hospital was intense.
“There was a lot of nervous energy,” said Jodi. “These are unexplainable moments. You can’t plan that.”
The car came to a stop at an intersection and Jake looked out the window. Boston Bill’s riding cleat was caught in the bicycle pedals. Jake’s father, Brett, whipped the car around to see Bill.
“I think Bill was shocked when we got out,” said Jake. “He didn’t know what to think. We just said, ‘Hey, I’m going to go get my leg amputated today’. He just gathered some special words and just said everything’s going to be alright.”
The Bainters exchanged phone numbers with Bill, then 70, and snapped a quick photo. The next day, after Jake’s amputation, Bill showed up to the hospital to check on his new buddy.
It was the beginning of an amputee mentorship that looked a lot more like a friendship.
“We’d only met him once before, and he was already family,” said Jodi. “He left a footprint on Jake.”
“He always came to a lot of my prosthetic visits,” recalled Jake. “Especially the first one. For some reason, he was always as nice as could be to me. He was like a grandfather. He was part of the family, honestly.”
Bill and Jake got together as often as possible. The 100 miles between their homes made it difficult at first. Bill continued to ride his bike 20 miles per day.
“You could tell they were best buddies. Jake really looked up to Bill,” said Sean Fitzgibbon, who works at St. Pete Limb and Brace, a company that helps amputees find the proper prosthetics.
The friendship continued until Dec. 8, 2018, when Bill died in his sleep. Jake’s mentor was gone.
“I didn’t know how to react,” said Jake. “It was kind of shocking. It was really sad, to be honest with you, knowing I was never going to get his phone calls again or little fuzzy texts every once in a while.”
The kid who learned so much from the man with the prosthetic leg made a vow to walk in Bill’s shoes. Jake went from mentee to mentor. He flipped through photos on his cell phone of kids with missing limbs like Katie, Hunter and Jack.
His mission is to be for them who Boston Bill was for him.
Boston Bill and Jake Bainter gallery
“I think I owe it to Boston Bill because he was so passionate about helping kids,” said Jake. “He instilled that in my life. I’m just thankful for what he brought to my life and I know I’m going to try to live up to how great of a guy he was every day.”
Jake is the only kid in his high school with a prosthetic limb. He is set to graduate from Boone High School in Orlando this spring.
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