I love you Betty Jean. I think of you every day, still, and I look forward to being with you again.

My wife passed 9/28/15 Monday at 11 am. This is the first Monday the 28th since which has made it tough. I remember the days of our last week, not the numbers except the 28th. Sad songs today, Betty Jean would approve
  I posted this today on Twitter and got more than 900 responses so far. So many people all over the world who now know what a wonderful woman Betty Jean was.

Betty Jean Bashaw

November 30, 1961 ~ September 28, 2015

Betty Jean Bashaw, 54, of Marina, CA, passed away on September 28, 2015, from an extended illness. Betty was born on November 30, 1961, at Moses Lake, WA to Alfred and Barbara Bashaw. She attended school in Moses Lake and Ephrata, and then Wenatchee Valley College.

She is survived by companion, Rich Sweetz of Marina, CA; sisters, Janet (Rick) Wood of Moses Lake, WA, Dodi (Don) Mendenhall of Soap Lake, WA, Cathy (John) Henry of Quincy, WA, and Patty (Calvin) Walker of Ephrata, WA; brother, Joe Bashaw of Moses Lake, WA; and numerous nieces and nephews. Betty was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Billie Callahan.

A private family service is planned.

Betty Jean Bashaw passed on to the other side on September 28, 2015. Betty was a deeply spiritual woman and a lover of nature. Betty excelled at calligraphy, drawing portraits, and animal rescue. She also enjoyed cooking, coffee, playing piano, tennis, ice skating and camping.
   Betty lived a life marred with pain. She had a lifesaving hysterectomy at 18. She nearly lost her left foot to a forklift, fractured and displaced her tailbone leading to years of pain. Betty also suffered herniated disks in her back and neck, as well as extensive arthritis in her legs. Betty had to deal with breast tumors, COPD, depression, emphysema, and nearly died from hepatitis C. Years of chemotherapy neutralized the hepatitis but left her liver permanently damaged. In recent years walking became more difficult and she developed congestive heart failure, but she pushed through it all.
   Betty had a difficult journey, growing up in east Washington with her parents in a home with little love or communication. She lived periodically with her sister Dodi in California through her teen years and thought of Dodi's husband as her second father. Betty briefly married in 1980, but it was an abusive relationship.
   Betty drifted through several jobs and relationships, got her GED and followed that with an Associate degree in 1986. She enjoyed her nieces and nephews, but her inability to have children depressed her greatly. Betty began studying the Bible in an effort to find meaning, an understanding of God's creation and her place in it. She also began rescuing Manx cats. In 2007 Betty traveled across the country and eventually settled in Monterey because she couldn't live in extreme weather due to her health.
   I met Betty on December 21, 2009. I was playing/singing music for a Christmas party. This woman kept getting up and taking pictures of me. Afterwards as I was loading equipment she came up to me and said she was attracted to me. I looked at her and told her I was attracted to her too. We spent every hour I wasn't working talking about everything under the sun. She told me about her life, things she had never shared with anybody else. We fell in love quickly. For the next 5 1/2 years we were happy together. Sadly, for the last 2 years of her life her health steadily got worse as did her pain. It was hard on both of us. We knew she didn't have long to live. Betty's last hours awake she was happy and talking to everyone she passed. She kept looking for her deceased dad saying he was coming to see her. Her last words before falling asleep were "let's go home". She slept for 3 days before passing. Daddy had come and Betty was finally home, an angel with the angels.