Bill Weber

Bill was a kind and generous man with a heart of gold. He loved his family and friends unconditionally. He was a no frills kind of guy and the simple things in life meant the most to him. He loved the outdoors. He loved his golf. He loved to fish. He loved the beach and that was where he wanted to go every year. We alternated years…one year to the East Coast and one year to the West Coast at our beloved Captiva. He patiently tolerated Justin and me bringing home boxes of shells and he would carefully label the year on the box and put them away for safe keeping.

He was a fabulous cook. No where have I had a better filet than when he grilled one for me. He made the best macaroni salad ever! He taught me to be brave with seasonings and to experiment.

He loved Pink Floyd, The Eagles and Heart. He eventually began to tolerate and then enjoy all my country music. He knew the names of the characters on my one soap opera Bold and the Beautiful even though he gave them other nicknames.

While he was a big strong man, he was also a man who sang to his cats. He loved Nascar and he was completely devoted to his Pittsburgh Steelers and could quote their statistics and players as far back as anyone wanted to hear about. He also became a converted Florida Gators fan because of me and my brother.

Thank God he didn’t like the cold weather in Pennsylvania and moved to Florida or I would never have had the gift of him in mine, Justin and my family’s lives. He also gave me another wonderful family in Pennsylvania. I love them so much.

Bill and I talked all the time. It was one of the foundations of our marriage. It was our routine when we both got home from work that we would sit in our rocking chairs at the front of the garage and tell each other about our day. Sometimes it had been a bad day, but it just seemed that he could make it better. I hope I did that for him.

Justin was 10 when Bill and I got married; in fact Justin gave me away. I will never forget the 1st time he met Justin when we were dating. We were going to the beach (of course) and he had grilled me on all of Justin’s favorite things. He packed a cooler with coke and Reese Cups…he bought a Frisbee and a new shovel and pail. He just wanted everything to be perfect. While we didn’t have children of our own, Bill felt as if we had three….Justin, and our dear girls Kristine and Michelle. He was so proud of all of them.

He is the best neighbor that anyone could have. He has helped so many friends and family in so many ways with his skills as an electrician and all around handy man. He always decorated the big tree in our front yard with thousands of lights at Christmas. The neighborhood would look forward to it. He would start it Thanksgiving weekend and have just enough lights on “our side” of the tree so we could begin the Christmas season by sitting in our rockers, looking at the lights and listening to Martina Mcbride’s Christmas CD. Our favorite song was her rendition of Oh Holy Night. We both always got teary eyed and never got tired of it.

Bill never failed to surprise me with his thoughtfulness. On our 20th anniversary this past January, he coordinated with the florist and the restaurant to have flowers delivered there and brought to me at the table by the waiter. That’s the kind of person he was. He was so proud of that. I told him it was the best thing anyone had ever done for me.

He told me that he truly fell in love with me when we were at my parent’s house and he, my Daddy and I were in the outdoor kitchen and I was frying fish and hushpuppies. I was a sweaty mess and had my hair tied up on top my head, but that was it…that was the moment, who would have thought? I have been the luckiest person in the world to have had Bill in my life. I will treasure every moment and every memory.