For 54 years, William (Bill) and Lucille Cleve were partners in life.
The Mt. Brydges couple raised three sons, worked hard and shared an unusual hobby. Members of a local CB radio club, Lucille went by the handle âQueen Beeâ while Bill was known as âThe Silver Stud.â
So when Bill, 76, and Lucille, 75, were terminally ill with cancer, their family and staff at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital agreed they should be together one last time and moved them into the same room last week.
They died 11 hours apart on June 18.
âThey didnât go anywhere without one another,â their eldest son David said. âYou never saw one without the other one close by. . . They were partners.â
Though itâs not uncommon for spouses married a long time to die shortly one after the other, Joe OâNeill of OâNeill Funeral Home said he has only seen a couple die in such close proximity a handful of times in his over 30 years as a funeral director.
David remembers his mother as a strong-willed, hardworking woman capable of doing anything. She worked at a local factory and was a busy mother of three boys; David, Tim and Brian.
âShe was very cheerful, very happy lady. Never had a bad word to say about anybody,â said David, who also remembered his motherâs fondness for knitting, sewing and crocheting.
David remembers his father Bill working long hours as a truck driver â getting up early and coming home late most nights. But the long hours and hectic schedule never got in the way of his relationship with his wife or children. Bill was a genuine and caring man with a charismatic personality.
âHe was a jokester. . . He always had a story. He was a storyteller his whole life,â David said. âHe drove trucks so he met a lot of people, talked to a lot of people and saw a lot of things on the road.â
When Bill and Lucille werenât working or raising their three sons, they became âQueen Beeâ and the âThe Silver Studâ on the airwaves of CB radio.
Because they grew up with modest means, Bill and Lucille were kind and caring people who saw the value in simple things, their son said.
Shortly after they moved to Mt. Brydges, the couple took in a family of four who had been burned out of their house.
âThey would help anybody,â David said. âThey were very generous people and helped whenever they could, whatever they could.â