LAKE VIEW, N.Y. — A love like the one Mike Lips found in his wife Sharon Lips is one most of us would consider ourselves lucky to ever have.
"It had to be five months before I even asked her out for a date. From that point on, it was just magic," Lips said.
But loving someone with your entire soul also makes it that much harder when theirs has left this earth.
"Of all the losses that have occurred in my 75 years, they are a drop in the bucket compared to this," Mike Lips said.
Sharon Lips died in May from lung diseases. Now Mike is coping with a lot of firsts by sending a 35-by-20-foot message to her up above.
It's a sign on his roof that says "Bills Mafia."
It's the first time in nearly 40 years Sharon won't be able to watch the Bills with him, and the first time the two won't be able to spot their house from the plane as they came back from another adventure.
"You knew you were getting close to home when you could see the roof," Mike Lips said. "I took her everywhere."
In addition to his sign, Mike is also asking Bills Mafia to donate to a GoFundMe he's started for two causes close to his wife's heart: the Erie County SPCA and Buddy's Second Chance.
"I wanted somehow, some way to give her a legacy," Mike Lips said.
Doing some good in honor of the woman who changed his life is one of the few ways he's trying to mend his heart of the grief.
"It never goes away," Mike Lips said. "In my shop downstairs, every single day up until the last five days of her life when she couldn't walk ... she'd stop me from doing everything, and we'd sit and talk."
He says he is in pain but feels honored to have been able to love Sharon in this lifetime.
"Oh my God, yeah. She was definitely a gift from God. She was an angel," Mike Lips said.
To love an angel like Sharon is all Mike could've asked for and her legacy is one he hopes we all will cherish forever.
"When enough people know about it, as they come and fly into Buffalo, they're going to know I'm close to home," Mike Lips said.