Today has been a harder day than I expected. 5 years and a few odd hours ago I lost an amazing friend. Bob truly loved people, loved them like Christ calls us to love them. He was the first person I ever knew who lived that way. So today, on this terribly hard day, I am posting this blog in his memory...
Bob was the kinda guy everybody loved. I can honestly say I never met a person who did not immediately like Bob - he was loved by many! He was outgoing, absolutly crazy and yet always made you feel like you were someone...that you were special...that his life was better because you were in it.
Bob gave the best hugs. Many of my friends now are amazing huggers, but Bob just had a way about him. He was a fairly tall guy, measuring around 6'2 I would guess, and when he hugged me I always hit right in the middle of his chest. He would hold me tight as I breathed in the smell of his cologne. To this day whenever I smell "Bob" it makes me feel loved - like he is enveloping me in his arms.
Bob was one of those guys who would do anything and everything he thought would be funny or entertaining...he didnt care what people thought, he did it anyway. One night a few of us friends were at a video store picking out movies, when out of nowhere Bob dropped to one knee next to me and VERY LOUDLY begged me to marry him - that he couldnt live without me. I was mortified! I was shy and quiet in public places during my high school years and I DID NOT want attention called to me. I must have turned 3 shades of red! I told him I couldnt marry him without a ring. So he promptly bought me a plastic gold coin ring out of a machine and said we were engaged. He even bought me an "engagement" present - a single of my then favorite song, Truly Madly Deeply (yes I am that old that in high school they still had single albums on cassette)
Bob was one of my closest guy friends who was always there for me. At my prom he "saved" me a few times from my psychotic date - and he was the only person I danced there.
I can tell you exactly where I was and who was around the morning of the May 6th when I heard Bob had been killed in an accident the day before. At first I refused to believe it was true that someone so full of life could be gone. He had just finished up his first year at Ball State and had just returned home for summer break. We had emailed a few days before and were planning on getting together that afternoon I found out he had died. My world came crashing down. I dont remember a lot about the days before the funeral, only bits and pieces. His funeral was probably the hardest one I have ever had to attend. The thing that sticks out the most in my mind was the amount of people who showed up to his viewing. Hundreds of people came...some of them people he had only met once...they all came.
If there was one thing that came out of Bob having to die at such a young age, it would have to be my realization that life is too short. That I need to live my life without regrets. That I need to live each day to the fullest. And that I need to love people well.
Every year Cinco de Mayo gets a little easier to deal with...every year its easier to remember Bob with a smile, not a tear. But today, I still miss my friend.
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