It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since Bears’ legend Walter Payton succumbed to liver cancer at the age of 45.  Sunday is the anniversary of the day we lost “Sweetness”, but it won’t be a bittersweet moment for his widow Connie, or his children Jarrett and Brittney.  The Payton family has spent the past 10 years grieving, and growing without Walter.  CBS 2’s Ryan Baker sat down with Connie and Jarrett to find out what life has been like for them since losing a husband, father, and friend.

 They believe he’d be proud of what they’ve become, as they live out the legacy of #34.   “I know I have him in my mind all the time and I see him through the kids and everything they do,” Connie Payton-Strotter said.  Jarrett added, “Yeah, it’s starting to seem like 10 years.  With all of the things that have happened between there.  All the things the family has done, all of the stuff that we’ve done together, stuff on my own, getting married, stuff like that, you start to see how long time is.  I still feel like yesterday that day with the press conference (when Walter Payton reveled his liver disease) and I was holding my dad in my arms…time passes”.   

“I'm happy to say we’re all at good places right now,” said Payton-Strotter.  “I Just recently remarried to someone who admired Walter and loved Walter, and my mother-in-law, who’s graciously accepted him too and says he reminds her of Walter too, so we’re all at a great place.  He’s happy for us where we are right now”.   She says Jarrett looks and acts more like his father as he gets older.  “He does and there are things that he’d do personality wise, and sometimes the way he sounds, and even Brittany.  I look at her and I’m like ‘gosh, she’s definitely her dad’s daughter’”.  “I feel like him, I just do,” said Jarrett.  “ I modeled myself after him.  Everybody has their heroes, everybody has the person who they look up to.  I was fortunate to have him living in my house.  I see myself in him so much because everything I always wanted to be, I strived to be like him”.  “He’ll never be forgotten.  People always ask me, ‘do you get sad when people talk about your dad?’  I said I’ll be sad if people ever stop talking about my dad”.

The Bears will remember Walter Payton and honor the 10-year anniversary of his death with a ceremony during Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns.  “There will be tears I’m sure, they’ll be happy tears, joyful tears.  I’m happy that we can be in the presence of people who truly love the Chicago Bears and who truly loved Walter.  It’s a celebration”.

Nicknames are often repeated in sports, but there's never been another Sweetness.  "Other than me, Sweetness J," says Jarrett.  "Sweet 'n Low, Neutrasweet...I've heard alof of those".  "He (my dad) said I wasn't the biggest, I wasn't the fastest, but I was the smartest.  "On the field he was so sweet.  They'll never be another one."  Certainly not as sweet.