Hello everyone,
It's been a difficult few days with the passing of my dear friend, Jeanne Bice, this past weekend. So, I'm dedicating this blog as a tribute to her memory. I still can't believe she's gone!
When I met Jeanne 16 years ago at QVC, I immediately fell in love with her. She had an endearing personality that drew me to her, yet I knew I'd better be doing my homework before her shows because she expected the best from everyone. She wanted things done right. I respected that about her.
As we started to get to know each other (and especially when I found out she grew up in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin…another Midwesterner), we had a lot in common. We always laughed about the Friday night fish fries and other common experiences from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
She always said "thank you." After every show I did with her, she would call my voicemail and leave a message thanking me for working hard on her show and for "playing" with her. She would call me an "angel" and say nice things to encourage me. She would sometimes even call and leave a message just to say that she'd been watching the other day, and then continue with more encouraging words — it wouldn't even be about her own show at all.
My sisters and I vacationed in Florida one year and Jeanne found out we were there. She called me and invited us to come for dinner, so we did…and what a fun night we had. It was so inspiring to be in her home that just exuded love and cheerfulness in every room by how it was decorated and the sayings on the walls.
One of the things I'll never forget was many years ago, in some conversation we had, I mentioned that I collect individual teacups and saucers. A few years back, I received a package from Jeanne a couple of months after her mom died. In it were five cups and saucers that she found when she cleaned out her mom's things...and she sent them to me. I couldn't believe it! They were beautiful and quite old, and I've cherished them ever since. However, this weekend, they became even more precious. In fact, on Sunday, after learning about Jeanne's passing, I went to my curio cabinet to look at those cups again. The first one I saw had words on the front of it in a gold lettering. It said, "Think of me." I hadn't really noticed those words before, but how awesome to see them now! That brought more tears to my eyes. Jeanne, I AM thinking of you!!!
I'm going to share a couple of those cups with you Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. ET during My Time with Mary Beth. I hope you'll watch and share in my memories of Jeanne. I'll miss her cheerfulness, her smile, her laughter, her cute words she used to describe things, but most of all, the love she showed to me and millions of others. She touched my life in such a special way. I count it a true blessing from God that I had the privilege of knowing her for the past 16 years!
Counting our blessings,
—Mary Beth Roe
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