A tag and a story!

UPDATE: Freddie Haddad passed from this world April 17, 2011 at 10:40pm.

I met Leslie and Fred about 3 years ago when Leslie opened up her scrapbook store Whole Lotta Scrap on Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma. They are a really awesome couple and you can tell that they genuinely love and care about one another. We have spent birthdays, holidays, and other events with them and they have become part of our family. Leslie has taken to calling me Momma and she is my other daughter by another mother! The beginning of March Fred went to the doctor thinking he had some kind of stomach problems and was given some bad news. Fred had Stage 4 Liver Cancer that had spread throughout his body. It was so sudden it was a shock since Fred hadn't been ill and there hadn't been any other warning signs that it was growing.

Fred is in the hospital tonight and the doctors have told Leslie and the family that Fred most likely won't make it another 48 hours. I went to the hospital to visit with them for a while tonight and say my goodbyes. Fred was asleep...and chances are he won't wake from this sleep tonight. My heart breaks for Leslie. Fred will be missed by many!

I made this tag today thinking I would give it to Leslie and Fred when I went to the hospital today. I think I left it on a table...I can't remember now.



I think the closeup picture of this tag says it all about how Fred enjoyed life to the fullest! He loved and cherished his family and was loyal to his friends. Professionally he was respected by all his colleagues and known to deliver what he promised and took pride in his work.
Fred loved to go to sports events and NHRA races in Ft. Worth. Fred actually took a couple pictures of my husband Chuck at a race in TX before they even met each other last year. He loved going to his land with Leslie's Dad, Claude, and four wheeling and cooking out. Fred loved a good gossip and would come to the store when we had crops and would sit and joke and kid around with the women there about this and that and he got so comfortable just hanging with us we dubbed him and honorary scrapbooker! He liked nothing better then play pranks on some of the women and would enlist Leslie's aide to help him pull it off. Fred would come in and cook hot dogs and hamburgers for us when we had the OU/OSU football bedlam each year, one year smoking out the store. Everyone that knew Fred knew what a hard worker and how sincere a person he was. If you had a problem he had a solution! Freddie was always willing to help carry stuff and would make multiple trips to the cars packing out the too much stuff we packed in and when the women told him they needed lockers to store their stuff in he built them! He was priceless!

Yep, I think Fred Enjoyed the Journey...we enjoyed Fred!