In memory of Billie Claire Haffey
March 7, 1957 - July 3, 2012
From "The Hubby" (aka Charlie Haffey)
Having a Best Friend opens up the rest of your life to anything and everything imaginable. Being able to trust that person and share your heart with no fear of judgement, ridicule or reproach is possibly the closest we can get to communicating with God Himself. Answers to your questions are honest and only to each other do Best Friends show their vulnerabilities.
Possibilities become probabilities. Dreams do come true !
Becoming friends:
Billie has been my best friend since we met some 22 years ago. I was slow to trust and love. I found it very difficult to believe that this girl could totally and completely be 100% head over heals in love with me. Billie would have it no other way. Any time I tried to "pump the brakes" on our relationship she would "hit the gas"! We've all heard the saying "Drive it like you stole it", well, that's pretty much how she stole my heart.
First comes Love, then comes Marriage:
Before we picked a date for our wedding, we wanted to be sure it was the right thing to do. so many considerations, mostly our children. And we were so financially broke. There were tax debts, eviction notices, bounced checks - neither of us owned a home (it would be 9 years before we bought our 1st home). Yet, we wanted our marriage to not only be right, but to be "in line with the stars" and to change not only our own, but everyone's life in our family for the better.
The Equinox:
On March 20th, 1993 the Vernal Equinox occurred at exactly 8:41AM in the morning. That was our time. Our place was a wedding chapel in a nature reserve built and hand painted by a dear friend of ours. With us were our children and some very close friends (no more than 10 or so). We exchange vows and balanced a raw egg
(to assure the planetary forces were in balance - GOOGLE Vernal Equinox for more info). It has felt right every day since.
Happily Ever After:
Happiness and good fortune seam to flow our way. We had a setback or two with the good fortune part, but the happiness is what carried us forward.
Billie could make me laugh like no other and for some reason she always found humor in my thinking and my jokes. She chose to be happy. I know now that it is in our own mind to choose to be happy, it's not up to someone or something else to decide that for us. Billie chose to be happy.
We bought our 1st home together in Hobe Sound and two years later moved 21/2 blocks into another home with a Mother-In -Law unit in the back yard . . . . complete with the Mother-In-Law.
Billie LOVED to have the family over so she could try out all of her recipes. The food was not just delicious, everything she cooked contained a secret ingredient that made you full but had you craving more.
I tell you now so for those of you that cook you'll know how to win approval and admiration . . . the secret ingredient was LOVE.
I truly mean it. If the taste in her food was off just a bit, I KNEW that something was wrong with how she felt. We could
always talk about it - sometimes with a few tears and sometimes a little
loud - but I learned to taste her love! !
Billie would walk into a room and it was if someone turned on a special light. The room would light up and if you were in a bad mood you'd just have to leave the room if you wanted to stay that way.
When she smiled she would BEAM
The beginning of the end:
May of 2010 -
When she noticed a small, hard lump on her neck (it was a lymph node) we had it biopsied and learned she had developed a cancer that had already moved into stage 4, the final stage.
God gave us two more wonderful years with our friends and family which are, for the most part, documented in the pages of her blog.
We all know that our time here on earth is limited, but when you are given a "Last Call" there are certain realities that present themselves to you. Priorities change, relationships change and the TRUE meaning of life comes into question on a daily basis.
Billie Claire Cheek - Haffey did the very best that she could to live, love, laugh and share everything that she had, every ounce of love, with everyone that she knew and loved.
If you are reading this then this means you! !
She was my angel sent from heaven and to her I owe the rest of my life to honor the love and share all that I have learned from her. No matter the question, the answer is LOVE. Love yourself - you are worth it.
After her passing into her eternal bliss on July 3rd, 2012, our family and a few close friends gathered together to remember her life. She asked to be cremated and that her ashes be scattered at the beach, in the air, the flower garden . . . . she didn't care as long as she could be anywhere and everywhere.
We took her to the beach in Hobe Sound, a beach near Grayton Beach and to the place where we took our first steps as a married couple at the chapel in Hogtown Bayou.
She will be remembered always and the impact on our lives will have ripple effects for generations to come.
Thank you Billie . . . .
and thank you readers and to those that posted comments for lifting her spirits and giving meaning to her life in her final years. We were truly grateful for the support.
I believe we have all been blessed for having known and loved such a beautiful soul.
March 7, 1957 - July 3, 2012
From "The Hubby" (aka Charlie Haffey)
Having a Best Friend opens up the rest of your life to anything and everything imaginable. Being able to trust that person and share your heart with no fear of judgement, ridicule or reproach is possibly the closest we can get to communicating with God Himself. Answers to your questions are honest and only to each other do Best Friends show their vulnerabilities.
Possibilities become probabilities. Dreams do come true !
Becoming friends:
Billie has been my best friend since we met some 22 years ago. I was slow to trust and love. I found it very difficult to believe that this girl could totally and completely be 100% head over heals in love with me. Billie would have it no other way. Any time I tried to "pump the brakes" on our relationship she would "hit the gas"! We've all heard the saying "Drive it like you stole it", well, that's pretty much how she stole my heart.
First comes Love, then comes Marriage:
Before we picked a date for our wedding, we wanted to be sure it was the right thing to do. so many considerations, mostly our children. And we were so financially broke. There were tax debts, eviction notices, bounced checks - neither of us owned a home (it would be 9 years before we bought our 1st home). Yet, we wanted our marriage to not only be right, but to be "in line with the stars" and to change not only our own, but everyone's life in our family for the better.
The Equinox:
On March 20th, 1993 the Vernal Equinox occurred at exactly 8:41AM in the morning. That was our time. Our place was a wedding chapel in a nature reserve built and hand painted by a dear friend of ours. With us were our children and some very close friends (no more than 10 or so). We exchange vows and balanced a raw egg
(to assure the planetary forces were in balance - GOOGLE Vernal Equinox for more info). It has felt right every day since.
Happily Ever After:
Happiness and good fortune seam to flow our way. We had a setback or two with the good fortune part, but the happiness is what carried us forward.
Fast forward to children getting married, grand-kids, more marriages, more grand-kids . . . our family grew with love and friendships.
We bought our 1st home together in Hobe Sound and two years later moved 21/2 blocks into another home with a Mother-In -Law unit in the back yard . . . . complete with the Mother-In-Law.
Billie LOVED to have the family over so she could try out all of her recipes. The food was not just delicious, everything she cooked contained a secret ingredient that made you full but had you craving more.
I truly mean it. If the taste in her food was off just a bit, I KNEW that something was wrong with how she felt. We could
always talk about it - sometimes with a few tears and sometimes a little
loud - but I learned to taste her love! !
Billie would walk into a room and it was if someone turned on a special light. The room would light up and if you were in a bad mood you'd just have to leave the room if you wanted to stay that way.
When she smiled she would BEAM
The beginning of the end:
May of 2010 -
When she noticed a small, hard lump on her neck (it was a lymph node) we had it biopsied and learned she had developed a cancer that had already moved into stage 4, the final stage.
God gave us two more wonderful years with our friends and family which are, for the most part, documented in the pages of her blog.
We all know that our time here on earth is limited, but when you are given a "Last Call" there are certain realities that present themselves to you. Priorities change, relationships change and the TRUE meaning of life comes into question on a daily basis.
Billie Claire Cheek - Haffey did the very best that she could to live, love, laugh and share everything that she had, every ounce of love, with everyone that she knew and loved.
If you are reading this then this means you! !
She was my angel sent from heaven and to her I owe the rest of my life to honor the love and share all that I have learned from her. No matter the question, the answer is LOVE. Love yourself - you are worth it.
After her passing into her eternal bliss on July 3rd, 2012, our family and a few close friends gathered together to remember her life. She asked to be cremated and that her ashes be scattered at the beach, in the air, the flower garden . . . . she didn't care as long as she could be anywhere and everywhere.
We took her to the beach in Hobe Sound, a beach near Grayton Beach and to the place where we took our first steps as a married couple at the chapel in Hogtown Bayou.
She will be remembered always and the impact on our lives will have ripple effects for generations to come.
Thank you Billie . . . .
and thank you readers and to those that posted comments for lifting her spirits and giving meaning to her life in her final years. We were truly grateful for the support.
I believe we have all been blessed for having known and loved such a beautiful soul.
5 comments:
Charlie, I know how much of your heart you put into this post and I thank you...tears are streaming down my face in gratitude. I am so very grateful my sister found her true love in you and you in her once you got past the "is this for real??" stage. You feel the loss of your best friend's physical presence I know, but yet she is still everywhere! God IS love Charlie...so you must feel the presence of that too. I am forever grateful for the gift of having her for my little sissy..we have shared so many experiences together through our lives...oh the stories I can tell! I relish every one. For sisters with a 6 yr age gap we did hang out together all the time and got into a lot of mischief too. I will always love her...forever and always as will everyone that she touched. Today I choose happy!
alboxc 72Charlie, Thank you so much for showing your love of my little cuz so elequently and truthfully.. Billie Claire was and is so special to all of her
Arkansas family. I miss her everyday and think of her every time I see a bright twinkling star in the heavens. When I see one twinkling like it is going crazy, I choose to believe that that is My Billie!! She told me in our conversations that she would come to me like that, and I believe it is her.I feel her loving hugs even today and man were they special. She often talked to me about how special you were to her and how much she loved you and her life. You did a great job of making her happy.
Now you must travel those roads alone, without her effervesent laugh and that beautiful smile, but know that she is there. You can feel her love. She is forever at your side.
I'm going to be happy today and everyday that I think of her, because that's what she wanted.....
Billie made an impact on everyone she ever met. My memories of Billie when we lived in Destin still make me smile. I think of her every time I start a recipe with "first you melt a stick of butter". She has always been in my heart - and I miss her. Thank you for leaving this blog up to share.
Jeanne
Charlie, I just read for the first time what you wrote...thank you ;))) Today I honor the life of my lovely friend Billie. How do we tell those who have not had the good fortune to have met her how very special she is; that she is indeed LOVE itself! We both know that we can thank our lucky stars that she blessed our lives with her presence. My best to you today. Cheryl Hullin
This is the first that I've heard of the loss of Darling Billie. I have so many tears to shed for the beautiful person the world has lost. I still can't believe it.
Post a Comment