![Flowers, quotes and a Genie were left on the Boston bench](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/08/13/08/robin-williams-bench.jpg?quality=75&width=982&height=726&auto=webp)
In the days and weeks following the tragic death of actor/comedian Robin Williams in August of 2014, many Boston-area fans paid tribute at the site of one of Williams’ most iconic scenes. His Academy Award-winning performance as therapist Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting (1997) included a moving scene in which Maguire quietly confronts his patient, troubled young genius Will Hunting (Matt Damon), while they are seated on a bench next to a pond in Boston’s Public Gardens.
![Robin Williams Dead: 'Good Will Hunting'](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/buzdtd2caaa7_xw.jpg_large.jpg?w=681&h=383&crop=1)
I visited the site in October of 2019 and left a small token of tribute on the bench. There is a great deal to be said, I think, for this type of memorial pilgrimage and ritual. As ephemeral as a given gesture or tribute may be, the simple physical fact of it, the sentimental and sensory experience in the moment, can also be truly meaningful.