My Bill--Celebrating The Life of William “Bill” Fleming
When I was in High School I worked part time after school at Joe & Rose’s Restaurant (Where Wong’s is now). It was a small family run place and whatever jobs needed doing that was what you did. When I was 16 I was working washing the floors one Saturday afternoon when Bill came in to order a late lunch. I knew of him because he was the brother of two of my sister’s best friends Janet and Nancy but this was the first time I met him and talked to him. Mop and All….It was a Hi aren’t you Janet’s brother and I am Barbara’s sister. We talked for a couple minutes and he went to the counter and ordered his food from Rose. He had driven there in a large farm truck loaded with corn silage and he had been working in the fields before he arrived. I actually liked the smell of fresh silage and I had seen and had, had that same dusty sweaty look many times in the past from working on my family’s farm, that he had that day so I hardly noticed it. What I did notice was his beautiful smile and his eyes that sparkled as he spoke. Beautiful Blue Eyes. He came in a few more time in the next few weeks. He was quiet, but easy to talk to.
Around the 4th of July in 1961 there was a Carnival set-up in the Mart Parking lot and on Saturday after work I drove there to check it out. As I was walking around I looked out at the road and saw Bill driving by with his brother Dick’s Diamond T Farm truck. So I waved at him. A little while later he returned and found me in the crowd. We walked around, talked and rode some of the rides. Our first Date….It was Bill and Me from then on….We met each other’s families we shared many friends, we Quickly Fell in Love…With Bill I felt safe and knew that he was a person I could trust and depend on and I knew that he felt the same about me and when he looked at me with his Beautiful Blue Eyes I saw how much he loved me!
We were married May 24, 1962, I was 17 and Bill was 18. Many people thought that we were to young! But we believed in each other and that God had meant us to be together.
Bill and I moved into a small apartment at 27 Riverlen St. Millbury owned by the Lemay family. Nancy Putnam Lemay was one of my best friends and she lived in the apartment next to us. It was not fancy but it was home and it was where we brought home our first daughter Karen. Bill’s Beautiful Blue Eyes. shone with love for me and our beautiful baby girl . This was what we were meant to be “A family.” Bill worked two jobs because making sure his wife and daughter were taken care of and this was what was most important to him. Both of us were not afraid of hard work and it was so much easier because we enjoyed being together.
The next spring we moved to 11 Demers St. in South Grafton because I was expecting our second child and we needed more room. Family and friends were welcomed there and we were a favorite place for his younger brothers and sisters and my sister to visit and we had lots of laughter and lots of joy.
We were blessed with the arrival of our second daughter Sharon on October 4, 1963. Bill’s Beautiful Blue Eyes shone again with love for me and our beautiful baby girl. She quickly became “Charlie.”She got this nickname from Bill’s sister Nancy when she was a few weeks old from the Good & Plenty commercial Choo Choo Charlie was and engineer…..Two daughters 10 months apart…We loved our girls and each other and my job was being a wife and mother and Bill’s was to being a husband, father and provider.
We moved to 10 Veterans Circle in South Grafton in the fall of 1964 because it had been very cold the past winter at our old apartment and I was pregnant with another baby. On February 8, 1965 we welcomed our son, William Harold Fleming Jr., Billy. Bill’s Beautiful Blue Eyes again shone with such love and joy when he saw and held his son.
It was at veterans Circle that we got our 1st dog Wiley, a large 8 week old St. Bernard puppy. The 5 of us and Wiley moved to Fay Mountain Rd. Grafton in June of 1966.
My Grandfather Hemenway died in January, 1966 and in June my father and mother moved out of our family home on Fay Mountain Road to an apartment upstairs in my Grandmother Hemenway’s house on Adams Rd.. We bought the house from my Grandmother. I returned to my childhood home. It was now Bill and Susanne’s Home. And it has been for 51 years.
My mother had named our farm on Fay Mountain Rd “Walnut Grove Farm” and had painted it on a sign over the main barn door. It lasted a long time but eventually faded and fell down. Years later we had a new sign made and the name returned to its rightful place.
This was also the year that Bill got a job as a Truck Driver and went to work at McLean’s Trucking Co. where he worked for 20 years.
During the time he worked at McLeans he also worked with his brother Bob in starting Fleming Brother’s Trucking Co. and worked nights and week-ends for 5 years helping build this company. The original decision was that Bob would work full time at the Company and that Bill would join him when the Company had grown enough to support both families. This decision came after 5 Years. Bill weighed the decision and decided to sell out to Bob.
33 Fay Mountain Road became our Home in every sense of the word. An open door--everyone is welcome here way of life is what Bill and I believed in and it was a favorite gathering place for our Family, our friends our children’s friends especially Nancy Putnam, Karen’s best friend and Brian Evans, Billy Junior’s best friend.
We visited our family members and friends and had many wonderful vacations with our children but there was no place like Home….This is where Bill’s Beautiful Blue Eyes shined the brightest with love for his family.
( Ok so there were also times that Sparks flew from those eyes when we made him mad!)
Time flew as Our 3 children grew up and graduated from High School. Karen went to Nursing School in Ohio, Charlie got a job at Howard Johnson’s Restaurant on the MA Pike in Westborough and Billy became a Truck Driver like his dad. In 1986 Billy married Missy Hermans, Karen married Gary Brooks and Charlie moved to California.
In 1986 McLean Trucking Co. went out of business and Bill lost his job but because of his good work record he quickly had another job at Preston Trucking Co. where he worked till he retired at 53 years old in 1997 when the Teamsters had a 30 years and out policy.
Retirement for Bill was not a stop working event-- it was being so busy you wondered how you ever fit in a job. Bill had time to do major repairs to our house and turn the garage part of the barn into a tractor repair and rebuild area, do over the 1st floor of the main barn with horse stalls that he could rent out for extra income and make over our upstairs into a small apartment when our children moved out.
We had a Winnebago Camper and then a Coachman Camper which we used for trips with our children, other family members and friends. In 1989 Bill and I bought our 1966 MCI bus conversion Motor Home which we had for 26 years. This was our “Home Away from Home” and we had many wonderful trips with it. Bill’s Beautiful Blue Eyes shone brightly as we headed out with “On the Road Again” playing on the 8 track player. He had a nice voice and we enjoyed singing together. Just the two of us…This Camper we also enjoyed with our children, Grand Children, other family members and friends.
We loved being parents and then our Grandchildren arrived as beautiful gifts from our children--Billy and Missy blessed us with Billy the 3rd and Erica and Karen and Gary with Jayson We treasured and loved them in a way that we could never have imagined before. This is also true about our 4 Great Grandchildren that our Granddaughter Erica blessed our lives with: Jacob, Aaron, Evan and Alexis. Bill became “Bapa” and I became Gram and Great Gramma. Marvin, Jacqui and their boys, and Heather, Kent and their girls, were also added (Our adopted children and Grandchildren)
Bill’s Beautiful Blue Eyes shone brightly with love at the mention of their names..
Our lives were full of Special Events: Holidays, Birthday Parties etc. or just days spent together just being “Family.”
There was also a tragic event that happened to our family and that was the accidental death of our son Billy at 25 years old. in 1990. This broke Bill’s heart and the scars were there for the rest of his life. Loving and treasuring family helped him to heal and go on. His Beautiful Blue Eyes lost some of their shine.
Our lives were also filled with Friends “The family that you pick for yourself.” Ken and Ginny Edmunds, Howie and Ruth Holden, Warren and Alice Crouse (we loved visiting them in Maine after Bill Retired) and many, many more wonderful neighbors and friends. For Bill enjoying the their company and helping them was an important part of who he was.
December 31, 2016 our daughter “Charlie” married Phil Beckwith at their home in Whitensville with her sister Karen performing the ceremony. We added a new Son and it was a Blessed Family Celebration. (This was the 73 Anniversary of my mother and fathers wedding.)
June 24, 2017 our Grandson Jayson Brooks married Elizabeth Palmer and we added a new Grandaughter. We had another Blessed Family Celebration
In July of 2005 Bill went to the hospital emergency ward with severe stomach pain and had many tests and a CAT Scan to find out what was wrong. The blood test revealed that he had a severe blood infection from a Tick Bite and Lyme disease and he stayed in the hospital on IV antibiotics to treat this.
The CAT Scan showed that he had a mass in his right kidney which turned out to be Kidney Cancer. He had this kidney removed in August. (Bill would often say that “a Tick saved his life” because the cancer was found early and his Urologist checked him every 6 months and he was kidney cancer free for 12 years.
In March of 2016 Dr. Ayvazian, Bill’s Urologist set Bill up for a CAT scan after seeing cloudiness on a chest x-ray which was part of his annual screening. This showed enlarged chest lymph nodes which turned out to be Stage 4 Renal Cancer. Bill then started treatments with Votrient, a Kidney Cancer medicine and he monthly Medical Check-ups at the UMass Hematology Oncology Department. This treatment had some side affects but kept the cancer under control for 14 months.
In June of 2017 Bill started having vague health symptoms and on Sept. 14th after a health episode he was taken to UMass Memorial for a CAT Scan which showed that the Renal Cancer was now in his brain. He then received a series of 15 Radiation Treatments to shrink the tumors in his brain and was scheduled to start Infusion Treatments on Oct. 18. Bill’s last Radiation Treatment was on October 10th and on Thursday, October 12th he woke to a Massive Stroke affecting his left side. He was taken to UMass Hospital Lake Ave. Emergency Ward where he was then moved to ICU and the 7th Floor for tests and treatments.
On October 16, 2017 he came home on VNA Hospice Care. When the decision was made by my family and me to bring him home we told him how much we loved him and promised him we would get and give him the very best medical, and personal care we could and keep him as pain free as possible.
His hospital bed was in the living room and he quickly improved because of being home. He required 24 hour care which was provided by his daughters, Karen and Charlie, Grandson Jay, Granddaughter Erica, Niece Donna, me and his two wonderful Home health aides Sharon and Shirley. We also had help from VNA Nurses, Chaplain and Music Therapists.
He also welcomed visits from his family, friends and neighbors. He was immobile but alert and loved to listen as well as talk to all of us. We even had Thanksgiving Dinner together as a family on November 23rd. Bill had grown weaker but he was still able to eat a little Thanksgiving Dinner.
This was our Treasured Gift of 6 weeks of Good Bye Time and Giving Back to Bill a small token of the care, love and devotions he had given all of us!
On Sunday Nov. 26th Karen and Charlie were with him and Karen realized Bill had taken a turn for the worse. His family was called to be with him knowing that he was near the end of his life. His body was failing but his spirit fought leaving. We were all around him and knew that it was time to say good bye because we could see the cloud of pain and darkness over taking him even with the pain meds he was receiving.
I then asked if we could play a CD that we had listened to many times during the last 6 weeks “Precious Memories” sung by Jim Reeves and the song Precious Memories came first, we listened and watched Bill praying that God would bring peace to Bill and take him home. During the song “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You” Bill opened his eyes.
His Beautiful Blue Eyes stared directly at me. They were deeper and bluer than I have ever seen them before. I could see to his soul and felt his love shining out to me. I could also feel another Presence of Love and knew that it was Jesus. It was time for me to let go and let the man that I have loved for 57 years go to his Forever Home.
It was the Hardest thing I have ever had to do but when I did I felt a wave of peace knowing that Bill was now healed and at peace, as he closed his eyes and left us. He is Home with his Family and Friends in Heaven.
The song “God Be With You” started to Play and we sang it together as best we could and then we prayed the Lord’s Prayer.
Today and for the rest of my life I will remember, be thankful and Celebrate having Bill as my husband, lover and best Friend…
I thank all of you wo share in the Celebration of the life of Bill Fleming!!!
