Brother Bill

Brother Bill

His name was Charles Matcheski. I called him “Brother Bill.”

Brother Bill was born Charles Bill Matcheski on 04 February 1931 in Grimes County Texas. He worked for Tenneco for many years and retired. He and his wife Barbara “Sissy” Matcheski were a very cute couple. He took care of her as best he could and she did the same for him. They were a very loving couple.

I met Brother Bill while working in a local convenience store. Through the years Brother Bill tracked me down to whatever of the family-owned stores I was working at that day and he would stand around and drink a cup of my coffee while telling me about how the world had changed and how it was way back when.

Brother Bill had cancer and had beaten it, or so he thought. He would drop Ms. Barbara off at dialysis and come spend the morning with me while she was taking the treatment and he would tell me of the wonderful work they did at MD Anderson. He told me how his doctor told him that most of the people at MD Anderson were there, in part, because they ate beef.

There were times when Ms. Barbara would come into the store instead of Brother Bill because he had just gotten out of the hospital. She would conduct their business and go back to take care of him.

Brother Bill lost his fight with cancer the end of June. Ms. Barbara sent her younger family members out to the family convenience stores to find me and let me know. I will miss Brother Bill more than I can say. To me it was very much like losing a grandfather. I never knew my father’s father. He died when my dad was just a teenager. I barely knew my mother’s father. He lived in Texas and we lived in South Carolina and Georgia. Brother Bill held a role in my heart similar to that of grandparents. Ms. Barbara would be right there in the role of an adopted grandma as well.

Please pray with me and Suzanne for Ms. Barbara and her family as they go through this time of grief.

View Brother Bill’s obituary at http://www.journal-spectator.com/obituaries/article_11caa086-bfe6-11e1-8315-0019bb2963f4.html

I am sorry that I haven’t posted recently. I have a lot going on right now and hope to get back to posting regularly soon.