Friends, family, and fans have mourned the loss of late Days of Our Lives legend Bill Hayes (Doug), alongside Hayes’ on- and off-screen wife, Susan Seaforth Hayes (Julie). Seaforth Hayes shared with Soap Opera Digest some of the ways in which she has been supported in her time of grief.
Seaforth Hayes has established real-life connections with several viewers, who have been wonderful to her this challenging time. One woman, in particular, was also recently widowed. This woman and and Seaforth Hayes first got in touch by mail decades ago, and they’ve kept in touch.
Seaforth Hayes mused:
She came out to visit me [from Kentucky] when she found out who my doctor was and she needed some surgery. She went to my doctor, because she trusted me, and we’re still in contact 25 years later. She made it possible for Billy and me to do Love Letters in her city. Now she’s alone, and the weather’s been terrible in Kentucky. So I called her because I was concerned about her, and she sent me a frozen cherry pie. She went to visit Billy’s grave in Michigan when she knew I was sending his ashes there. She said, ‘Do you want me to go with you, Susan? Are you going?’ I said, ‘I can’t bear to go. My grandson’s going to do it.’ And she went and visited the grave. My God! Some of the best people in the world are watching our show.
