Larger Then life - And Now It's Time To Say GoodBye

This is how I remember my Uncle Bobby. I looked and looked for pictures of him, and was so sad to find that I didn't have many. We spent so many good times together, and he was just always there, Uncle Bobby up to some crazy scheme, it never crossed my mind that he wouldn't always be there, and so it makes it easy to forget to take pictures of him. I remember being little and living in Colorado and swimming in his pool, I have pictures at the pool, of his house there, but not of him. I remember spending two days snowed in at his house playing Monopoly with the family, I even have a picture of me and his dog Bear. I remember going to his house in Up State new York and exploring the property, I remember his showing me his cool new toy, a computer, some 30 years ago when he worked at IBM and Zelda and Kings Quest (Completely text based at first) was the coolest new thing. How excited he was when it came out with 16 bit graphics. I remember driving across country and stopping to visit with him when he worked at Los Alamos labs, and how fast he drove the windy mountain roads, and how amazing his pet wolves were, and his walk in safe from the old bank vault, and even the picture I have of Joel holding one of his Semi Automatic Guns, but none of Bob. I remember the dozen or more times he would come and stay with us when he worked at Stanford and UC Berkeley doing Safety checks, and the late night dinners. and stories and fun evenings we had, he was always welcome. I remember the many times he came to visit us in Florida, I have pictures of his families, of Jason, Nathan, but not of him. He had such a big personality, but he was so constant, he was also a rock in the background.I remember a birthday in New york, I forget whose, when he and my dad horrified Oma and started taking handfuls of cake and eating it with their bare hands, always mischievous. I remember hearing stories of How he took in my mom when she drove with her one year old (me) from New york to Colorado, and how she met my Dad Steve there at his house. I remember the pictures of their wedding, he stood in as my dad's best man. I remember growing up hearing stories about his life, his wives, his exploits, he lived hard, he had no regrets, his gave his whole heart, yet he always had more to give. he liked to rescue people, he liked to be the big man out on the town. I remember security clearances, alien technology, drug busts, camping trips, all almost like larger then life fairy tales I grew up on. So many memories, I remember how happy he was when we went to visit last Christmas, so excited about his house, working so hard on fixing it up, I remember his spending an hour driving us around his neighborhood showing us all of his favorite Christmas lights, and the stories he told about the best yard sales and how they found such fun stuff for Holly, and yet, I still could not find a picture of him from that Christmas Visit, I have Pictures of Holly with Janelle, and the Kids, but bob, as much as his life was like a spotlight, did still linger in the shadows. Always in the background, turned away from the camera. I remember my wedding, I remember how he walked my mom down the Isle, and I remember how he stood in to read the speech my dad was not able to give, A rock providing support when he could. I remember how happy he was the last time I saw him, I remember playing cards and thinking how nice it was for my mom that he was there with her and that they could play each week. I remember how goofy and crazy he was, how the simple things like walking around Costco made him happy, he seemed at peace with his life. I remember how years ago he was convinced he had a brain tumor and could simply dig it out himself, I remember how he didn't like Doctors, not so different from my mom. I remember how he fought the good fight, he never gave up, how he wanted to go and work, even though he was sick, and how he put on a strong front, never letting his illness get him down.

It seems that in the end, he beat the Cancer, he had stage four lymphoma, it was in his bone marrow, but it was slow moving, he could have had it for such a long time, and just a week ago they told him after his 8th Chemo treatment that he was in remission, at least for a moment he had won, but the fight was so hard, and he had already spent so much of his life giving, that there wasn't much left of his heart to fight that last battle, and in the end his heart gave out. He left a piece of it behind with each of us, so many he had touched in his life, and I know he wouldn't have changed a thing, he was larger then life, and he will live on in all of the stories and memories that we grew up on. My Uncle, Holly's Great Uncle Bobby (Robert) died this morning around 1:00 AM EST. He is survived by a loving wife Janelle, her two Teen aged Children, His Mother, and Sister (My Mom), Two loving Nieces, a Daughter, Grandchildren, and Great Grand Child, and loving friends and extended family all across the globe, he was well traveled and made an impact wherever he went. He will be missed by many.
Larger Then life - And Now It's Time To Say GoodBye