Alan Hamel said his late wife Suzanne Somers had an extensive Manoho Blahnik collection, but told People she wasn't laid to rest in heels.
Instead, she was buried in Timberland boots as an homage to one of their favorite activities: Morning hikes. The two lived by the mountains for decades and hiked daily, Hamel said.
"(I) made my gift personal by drawing on them in a few words that represented our life to some degree and made them very personal to Suzanne,” the 87-year-old told People.
The "Three's Company" star died Oct. 15 of breast cancer, an illness she had survived for 23 years, her rep confirmed to TODAY. The couple was married for 46 years and together for 55.
Hamel said he felt compelled to forego the dress shoes because it would "have been predictable but not very personal."
For Somers, Timberlands represented safety. “Every time she put on the Timberlands, she said, ‘I am wearing you, and my boots will keep me safe,'" he recalled.
Hamel previously told TODAY in October about his late wife's final days. “She was doing OK," he said. "Not great, but she was doing OK.”
He remembers her for her life and for her role in their family.
“She was an amazing, amazing woman,” he said. “Aside from all her accomplishments, she was an amazing wife and an amazing mother, as well. She’s the one who pulled our family together. I didn’t do it. She did it. She really knew what she was doing. So I will miss her.”
Somers read a letter from Hamel the night before she died. In it, he tried to describe her love for her, but found the word "love" fell short.
“The closest version in words isn’t even close. It’s not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction. Unconditional love does not do it. I’ll take a bullet for you doesn’t do it. I weep when I think about my feelings for you. Feelings ... That’s getting close, but not all the way," he said.
The letter ended, "There are no words. There are no actions. No promises. No declarations. Even the green shaded scholars of the Oxford University Press have spent 150 years and still have failed to come up with that one word. So I will call it, ‘Us,’ uniquely, magically, indescribably wonderful ‘Us.’”
