Will miss you always!

Lost one of my favorite people in the world last week, about an hour after I moved my only child into her college dorm...having to tell her that we lost Uncle Billy, broke me. 

Below is the eulogy I delivered to honor him, I hope; I pray, it does him justice in some small way. 

For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Sam, Billy’s undisputed favorite niece, Billy is one of 11 kids so when I say undisputed, please know he had a lot of nieces to choose from! When my cousins would ask him if I was his favorite when I’d brag about this, he’d smile and say HELLOOOO! And that was the answer! To be fair, I may have had an advantage though; Billy is my dad Everett’s best friend and my mom Susie’s twin; she is older by 11 minutes because even then he wouldn’t ask for directions, probably because there were no liquor stores or bars to navigate! He lived with my parents 36 of their 51-year marriage and I grew up with him being a second father. So maybe in asking me to speak today was a mistake, I have so many things I could say; to know Billy is to love him but also to have been pushed to the brink of insanity by him a time or two. If you truly knew him, you have a story or two you could tell too! 

 This is not my first eulogy, when I gave my Nana’s Uncle Billy and Uncle Kenny came up to me later and said I did a good job and generously said could do theirs when the time came; Uncle Kenny told me just make sure I mentioned he was better at the spoons then Uncle Richard, Uncle Billy told me to make it funny and then go to all his favorite bars, I asked him, you want me to do a bar crawl? And he said he didn’t know what that was, and I explained it to him, and he said that sounded like a Friday night. Details of the first annual “Billy-Crawl” to follow! 

Growing up little girls play in their moms’ high heels, but not me, I played in Uncle Billy’s platform shoes, he loved those things! He would come home from work, and blast Sam Cook-working on the chain gang- he worked in a jewelry factory; my job at the time was to deliver him beers as he needed them and then he would pay me $1 a week! As a child I was his wing man, he’d take me to the bar, and I’d get Shirley Temples while he’d drink his beers. As a result, I blame him for my road rage, slim Jim addiction, ability to make small talk with anyone and love of scratch tickets! We would go for drives to visit family and eventually I even set him up with his wife when I was 12. 

 Billy loved dancing; he had the same John Travolta move he’d always do but it worked for him and to him Disco never died! Once at a Daves Xmas party he thought the DJ sucked so he joined another party at the location, and when we came to take him back to our party he was dancing in a circle with a group of women and they did not want him to leave, we had to fight to steal him back! He has shown up to a bar he knew I was at to hang with my friends and dance the night away with us and was the only Uncle to show up at cousins’ night. He would get you in his car and play his favorite tunes and just give you that look like dance with me, and you had no choice. When I was little, he would play me My Girl, and then when he had his girls he’d sing it to them, and then when I had my daughter it became our song too. I will miss him showing up at my apartment to make me go shopping with him because he thought it would look weird him shopping in the boys section alone! OR calling me in the middle of the night because he thought his car was stolen from the bar- it wasn’t he forgot where he parked! I will miss how he will insist he never saw an episode of Texas Ranger and then quote it word for word! I will miss how he would pretend to know sports but absolutely did not know sports, once he told me he was going to a Bruins game, and I was like oh wow I didn’t know you liked hockey and he was like what they told me it was basketball- he didn’t know the Celtics from the Bruins! Without him, no one will tell me their kidneys are floating randomly, or show up with a loaf of bread and make me cook French Toast in the middle of the day or answer my call with a YEAH KID? He was never one to waste time with a hello! Please note till the end he was a flip phone user; technology was not his friend! 

 Billy was the hardest worker I know; he would never take a day out unless someone made him. When my Dad got him the job at Daves, he was the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I don’t think he wore anything other than his Daves gear since he started there, unless it was a special occasion! He would tell me all the Daves stories, I wonder now how will I ever know what is going on with Johnny Delgato or hear how awesome Elaine did at something, and all the people he would insist on telling me very detailed stories about- most of whom I have never met. I might have to call his best buddy Butch for updates! His dedication to his job and Daves family meant a lot to him, and to see how many people he touched in this time there is something we truly appreciate as a family. 

Billy was the biggest ball buster I’ve ever known; we literally call it the Billy gene in our family. He liked nothing more than to prank someone or get them going. Have you been a victim? Has he called you pretending to be someone else? Has he thrown something at you to embarrass you? Has he said something he knew would piss you off, just to piss you off and laugh at you? Has he pounded on your door yelling- POLICE! Has he popped up somewhere unexpected to embarrass you? Has he made you participate in a prank you wanted no part of, but he roped you in? He loved that shit! 

Billy was also the most generous person I’ve ever known, if he could help you, he would, he looked after the people he loved to the best of his ability. He was also one of the most stubborn people to walk the earth, when he got something in his head there was no turning back! My Aunt Marion would always talk about how she would babysit my mom and Uncle Billy and if they didn’t want a bath he would jump out of the tub and run out the door naked and down Filmore Street in Providence, right behind him would be my mom, because they as always stuck together! The bond between twins is both unbreakable and undeniable and the two of them always had one another’s backs and hearts. When we found out Billy was sick he tried to keep it from my Mom because he wanted her to be able to take care of my dad without worrying about him, because till the end he wanted to protect her. Because that’s who he was, the one to take care of everyone else till the very end, some of his last words being how he would do anything for his kids. 

Billy has 3 kids; Stacy who is the most like him in looks and demeanor, the first time I ever saw him cry was when she was born her fierceness and determination and work ethic, quick temper and love to push your buttons comes from him. Lindsay, who he depended on the most, who could make him laugh like no one else and he loved to brag about her knowing trucks and how to make deals, and lastly Jason who has all of Billy’s charm and Billy considered one of his best friends and was the one person Billy had a hard time saying no too, his last days his focus was on Jay and making sure he was taken care of. Billy loved being a Papa, his Lilly-bug made him so happy! Cody is a little Jay and Jay in turn was a little Billy so what is there not to like? Harley just made him laugh at her antics, and the littles Trevor and Lucas filled his heart. We went to NH camping not too long ago and my daughter and I were lucky enough to drive him home and have a few hours with him alone, Kaitlyn played DJ and played all the music he loved, and he and I talked about old times, I told him I was lucky to have him for nearly 50 years and I knew all the good stories and I promised to keep his legacy alive for his kids and grandkids. I asked him is there any special song you want us to play for you and he thought about it for a minute and said, Stayin Alive and we both gave a half-hearted laugh. 

Our Nana would always demand three kisses before we left her, so today three kisses to her and Uncle Billy because I know she was waiting for her William Joseph with open arms and a cold beer! We are Irish so our heaven has an open bar! Uncle Billy, we will miss you more than words can say and the hole you leave in our hearts will never be filled; I know when I need you, I can find you on a back road, with the music playing and a cold beer in the console. Until we meet again Uncle Bill, we will remember the lyrics from one of your favorite songs, we aren’t here for a long time, but we are here for a good time! Love you the most! No Bullshit kid!