Billie Frances MOE

1938 - 2023

December 11, 1938 - December 28, 2023

Our mother was a planner. Years ago, she came bombing down to my house with a manila envelope and shoved it in my hand as she came through the door. "Stephanie, I've just been to the cemetery to finish paying for my funeral and they gave me this. It's a form I can use to write my obituary, but I'm no good at writing things. Can you write it for me?" I teased her with all the suggestive things I would write while she stood there and smacked me upside the head. We left it there on the table and went outside to have a cool drink on the patio. Well…here I am writing that obituary I promised her. I'm no good at your usual "obituaries". I wrote my father's, and I wrote my husband's and neither one was what you would consider a traditional obituary. This one won't be either.

Billie was born to her mother Elizabeth and her father Charles Van Amburgh on December 11, 1938, in Lind, WA. She joined her older sister Cherie. The family eventually moved from Lind to Spokane, where Billie attended Willard Elementary School and North Central High School. After high school she worked at Carnation Dairy for a period of time before marrying our father Earl Moe and settling down to become a homemaker and mom. In 1960 Mom and Dad welcomed Anthony and almost four years later, a daughter…me…Stephanie.

In May of 1974, mom started what would become her legacy, working as a grocery checker for Rosauers at the Y. It was a very good job and she needed that because she was now the sole supporter of two young children. If mom ever called in sick, I would be hard pressed to remember it. She worked harder than anyone I ever knew. Mom never took a handout, but she was always quick to help others in need. She would give her last dollar to help another. She retired from that very same Rosauers, thirty years later in February of 2004, however because her Rosauers people were her "family" she returned to help with the Cereal, Meat and Candy sales for four more years after that. Mom was a master seamstress. She made many a wedding dress for the young women she worked with and when it was my turn to marry, she made mine as well. That dress remains hermetically sealed in my closet to this day. It was a very lucky dress.

In later years, she moved on from wedding dresses to making beautiful quilts. She made quilts for everyone, her friends, her kids, her grandchildren until I finally told her that she needed to make one for herself. She started one, but unfortunately, her mind was starting to fade and before she could finish it, she had forgotten what to do. Mom was an avid reader and also loved to work in her yard, planting beautiful containers of petunias and pansies to enjoy from the deck. She baked the most delicious pies from her rhubarb bush and her strawberry patch every summer. Zucchini's? Oh yes, they were prolific under her tutelage. Mom was our protector, our advocate, our stellar example and my brother and I would not be the people that we are today, if it weren't for her.

Dementia stole our mom from us long before the good lord took her home. How someone so good can be stricken with such a horrible and torturous disease I will never understand, but our mother was a fighter, and she gave as good as she got until the very end. Billie is preceded in heaven by her mother Elizabeth, father Charles, sister Cherie and son in-law Mel Forsman. She is survived by her son Anthony (Tony) Moe, her daughter Stephanie (Moe) Forsman, grandchildren Brandon Moe, Seth Forsman, Kendra Moe and many dear friends too numerous to list here.

Everyone who knew her, loved her and she loved them right back. Please join us for her funeral service on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, at 11 am at Heritage Funeral home.

Mom, you were our inspiration, and we will never be the same without you here on earth with us. I envision you sitting on the most beautiful lawn swing, gazing out on a garden befitting paradise and sipping on a tall cool glass of Mike's Hard Lemonade…

"Cheers!!" We'll see you when we get there…

Love, Anthony and Steph