Dearest Fonda Gale Butcher,
April 25, 2016 would have been 52 years together. You left me on October 11, 2015 at 6:15AM to go and be with our Lord and before you died you said I’ll see you on the other side and I said yes you will.
Fonda you gave me 51 years and 190 days of marriage and 30 days before that, it makes 51 years and 200 days.
I ever missed a meal, you helped me through sickness and near death so many times, without you I wouldn’t have survived. Our love for each other was 100 percent real.
I remember the first time I seen you back in 1960 in high school. You were in the hall at school and had your hair up in a ponytail. My heart went to my shoes, I was on my toes walking on my heart. You were the most beautiful I’d ever seen in my life. I did not know much about going then, I was a freshman and you were a sophomore but I fell in love with you at that moment.
Every time I seen you I was walking on my heart. I would speak to you but you were with your friends and wouldn’t speak back. In my sophomore year you were even more beautiful I was still walking on my heart every time I seen you. I had to quit school my second semester and lost track of you.
In 1964, I had been working all day loading junk for my dad and just came into the house to clean up and the phone rang. It was my twin sister Dawn calling. She said Buckshot, I want you to come down to Mrs. Adams. I’ve got someone here I want you to meet. I asked if it was a boy or a girl and she said you dummy if it were a boy I wouldn’t be calling you. I said I needed to clean up, I was dirty and she said you get down here now. So I drove down there and walked up to the door and knocked on the door and when the door opened there was Fonda, my heart went to my shoes and I started walking on my heart again. She said what are you doing and I told her I was walking on my heart and I also told her this was straight from the heart. I told her the first time I saw you I fell totally in love with you and I am still in love with you.
We talked awhile and I asked Fonda if she had eat anything for supper and she said no. I asked her if she would like to go down to Hoppeys and get a burger, shake and fries. She said yes she would like to. I asked my sister if she would watch Mrs Adams until we got back from Hoppeys. We weren’t gone long, when we got back we talked a while. Fonda said she was going to get back inside and I asked her if I could see her again and she asked me when I would want to see her again and I said let me walk out the door and knock on it and you open the door. Fonda got a chuckle out of that. I said tomorrow and she said what time and I said early! She said ok.
We were married 30 days after.
My heart was bad in 1993 with my first heart attack coming out of surgery on my hand. I was in ICU 18 days, lost 56 lb and its continued to get worse every year. We raised 3 children. Mary Catherine, Phillip David II and Loyd Lee.
Fonda took care of me and I of her. I still love her. She should have been the one writing this instead of me. I was with her for 51 years and 200 days and I loved only her and still do. I know God has a special lady and I am waiting to be with her again. I have all the loving memories of her and what an angel I had. I could go on forever about Fonda what her sisters and brother, nieces and nephews and her own family meant to her!!
Her husband,
Phillip David “Buckshot” Butcher
I had the pleasure of speaking with Phillip David “Buckshot” Butcher about the love he and his wife shared. True love is hard to find these days and listening to his story and his love for his wife makes you realize just how special love and people are. In this day and time, the rush of life and work and things gets overwhelming and people don’t think to take the time to tell the special people in their lives how much they love them. Do so. Take the time out of the hustle and bustle of life to spend a few extra moments with those you love. We aren’t promised tomorrow so don’t take today for granted. Life really is about the simple things!
Holly Nine