This Sunday, March 20, it will be six years since Bob left us. I received this thoughtful and beautiful email just a couple of weeks ago (and received permission to post it).
Hi Renita….my name is Rod Hoekert. I believe I only met you one time when you and Bob were living in the Grand Rapids area (mid 90’s possibly?). I was a resident assistant at Calvin College when Bob was my resident director…back in 1985/86. I totally lost touch with Bob and I am so sad to come across his obituary and your blog (I googled him) regarding his death back in 2010. I was in a bible study at church this morning and one of our challenges was to reach out to someone in your past who had a positive influence on our lives, specifically our spiritual lives. I immediately thought of Bob and how much he helped me mature in my faith, specifically remembering back to a bible study (Ephesians) he lead for the 6 of us (RA’s) in the dorm. I’ll always remember him being a lover of the Mac computer well before its time. He had the greatest sense of humor and I’ll never forget some of his sayings such as “be the captain of your own crunch”….or all of the times he would ask to have a lick of someone’s ice cream cone and he’d bite off the bottom of the cone & hand it back to the shocked person. He always made me laugh!
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to tell him thank you for everything….. before he left this earth but I’m sure he is hearing me now…I look forward to some day seeing him again. I wanted you to know that he is not forgotten…that he was a special man…and just because he has been gone for nearly 6 years…that he is remembered in great ways! I’m sorry I never got to know you or your children but I wanted you to know that I am praying for you all…especially as his anniversary (of his passing) is a couple weeks away.
Sincerely,
In this email was a delightful Bob-ism that I hadn't heard before: "Be the captain of your own crunch." I love it! And it made me start to wonder what other Bob-isms are out there that Hannah, Noah, and I don't know? So let me ask those of you who knew Bob to send those to me at reedsinthewind@gmail.com so that we can enjoy them together.Rod Hoekert
Let me get you started with some of our favorites, to prod your memory:
- "Don't 'should' on yourself."
- "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with b*llsh %t."
- To Hannah: "Silence the old hag in your head."
- "It's all about the war." (spoken in a low, Darth Vader type voice)
