Cherie Kathleen Hill was born in Phoenix, the youngest of Paul & Lyvonne Hill’s four children. Danny, her oldest brother, at 5 years old, had been saving dimes for a baby sister, since his mom had told him that they couldn’t afford a baby girl. Ron was 4 and Tracy was 3 when she was born, so four children under 5 years old made for a very busy home. Having been an only child, Lyvonne wanted her children to have siblings, to not ever be lonely, as she had been growing up. Lyvonne had no idea how hard it would be with four kids under five years of age.

Lonely, they were not. The Hill household, after moving to Tucson became the place where all the neighborhood kids gathered. Often the station wagon was filled with our four plus neighborhood kids going to church and Sunday school.

Life changed drastically for the kids when their parents divorced, Cherie, at ten years old, had always been “Daddy’s girl”, and now found herself stuck with her least favorite parent, and three big brothers, who were struggling into their teens.

Life grew very complicated for Cherie, and bad choices began to be the norm. Being told she would never have children (for medical reasons) was a heartbreak to her early on. At twelve she had spent the summer caring for Danny’s girlfriend’s little girl, Feather, and so wanted babies of her own.

She had her dad’s long legs, so being tall made her appear older and helped her get into bad situations and places too easily. Drinking and drugs became on ongoing problem that haunted her from then on.

After spending 3 months in Phoenix because of a DUI, she came out clean and sober, met a man, Pete, with two small children she adored, and became Mommy to them. Then she got pregnant! Brian was the love of her life. Her “main man!” She absolutely loved being a mommy. Seventeen months later she and Pete had Laura. She was thrilled to have a baby girl.

They had their struggles with his drinking and her drugs and she left him when Laura was three months old. Shortly afterwards, she was arrested for transporting drugs and spent the next few years in Federal prison. Lyvonne took custody of Brian and Laura and continued her job at the TV station, taking them to visit her as often as possible.

After Cherie was released to come home she met Bob and they married. Soon they had Shane and seventeen months later came Bobbie Kathleen.

They moved to Lake Isabella, California, most of his family being in Bakersfield, hoping to get her away from bad contacts. Her addictions continued to torment her and Bob continued to try to control her and keep her off drugs. She had physical pain from a severe back injury, as well as emotional pain, and drugs were her escape.

She paid dearly for her addiction… Loss of contact from some valued family members, social isolation, lack of respect from husband and younger children, not getting to raise her older children, not to mention sleepless nights, close-calls, living on edge and all the drama that follows the drug scene. But she wore her addiction like a badge while always being able to tell you she had been clean for x-number of days.

Life was not easy for her. She began to walk stooped over from the back injury. She couldn’t have the needed surgery because she needed to be drug-free three months before they would do it, and her pain level wouldn’t allow that. She found it difficult to lie comfortably in bed and often slept in a chair after eating Moose Tracks ice cream.

She had always wanted her children to attend Bloom Elementary, Magee Middle School and Sahuaro High, that she had attended. By living with Lyvonne, Brian and Laura did attend those schools.

When Laura graduated from Sahuaro High School, Cherie traveled by bus to Los Angeles, and by train to Tucson to surprise Laura. She was so proud of Laura and so thrilled to be with her. Brian had paid for her trip, so he surprised us all by coming from North Dakota for the graduation, too.

Cherie was in heaven, being with her two oldest, and constantly on the phone with the two youngest, who had never been separated from mommy before. She scrubbed the alkali from the marble tile in my bathroom, carving a heart to remind me of her love.

Recently Cherie and Bob had decided to move back to Arizona and began searching the Internet for a place.

She and Lyvonne had some serious issues years before, and had worked through them, as she finally learned to trust that her mother really did love her. It seemed that as she realized her mother loved her “no matter what” she began to grasp that her Heavenly Father also loved her “no matter what”. She seemed to have more peace in her heart.

On a Friday morning, she was in the shower, talking to Bob through the door. Her friend, Shelly came over and went back to talk to her. Cherie didn’t answer and after several calls, Shelly opened the door and found Cherie collapsed in the shower, her face white and body blue.

Paramedics disassembled the shower door and got her out, giving her a shot to counteract if it was an overdose. The shot did nothing. At the hospital, they found she had an aneurysm that had ruptured causing a stroke. She also had pneumonia and they intubated her. The doctor told her husband that she could neither have caused this or prevented it. Later that afternoon they transported her by Life Lift helicopter to Bakersfield Memorial hospital.

Laura and Lyvonne drove over to be with her and stayed until after her repair surgery, as long as work would permit.

During the next few days, she had surgery to place a drain in her head, for the bleed, and surgery to repair the aneurysm. The damage from the bleed was too much and she was unable to recover.

Brian arrived in Tucson from a trip out of the country and flew to be with her. When she finally opened her eyes, it was not good, as we had hoped. She either was vague and non-focusing or her eyes were filled with terror. It was awful! Test showed massive brain damage from the bleed.

With much anguish, we agreed to let them extubate her. The process went amazingly smooth and she relaxed her expression and began to rest and breathe on her own.

They moved her to a private room, out of ICU and all the exposure, and we had two peaceful, though heartbreakingly sad days with her. She waited until Laura, Shane, Bobbie & Bob were on FaceTime with her and Brian in the room and she was gone.

We will never forget our beautiful, spontaneous, creative, thoughtful, caring, long-texting, outgoing, fun-loving, challenging, lovable, ice cream-eating Cherie.