Bob was by far one of the most generous, humorous people I’ve ever known. I am saddened to know that someone who I’ve become so close with over the past year is not here anymore. I still think he’s going to walk through the door and say “Gotcha!” because he was the type of guy to do such a thing. I was one of the closest people to Bob before he passed away. I miss his laugh and smile, mainly because we shared the same sense of humor and to me, that’s a rarity in life. Bob and I tended to pick on each other a lot, mainly because on how we were in general. I would pick on him for being short however I wouldn’t be mean about it. He would mainly pick on me due to my lack of thinking before I talk. We also had many inside jokes, which only him and I would understand.

He had sparkles in his bright blue eyes, I was always so jealous of them, but he always reminded me that my brown eyes were beautiful. I keep finding myself always about to call him up, since almost every night around 7 PM I would give him a call and we would have our hour long talks. I loved how the both of us never ran out of things to say. Sometimes I would call him right when he came through the door or right when he woke up, we always laughed about it.  I’ll cherish those nightly phone calls mainly because it gave us both something to do.

He would always agree to go out to eat with my mother and I at Manny’s, just because we could pick him up on the way there, we made many memories with him that way. He also had thanksgiving dinner with my family and I, in which I know he really appreciated. He enjoyed my company whenever I would go over to visit him outside of work. I’m surprised we never got tired of each other, mainly because we just got used to one another. I know our talks about life in general always had us laughing and smiling, it always had us appreciating that we had each other in our lives.

Bob loved to be outside, and since he didn’t have any other transportation, he would walk everywhere. He walked downtown nearly every day just to avoid being bored at home. Even if it was scorching hot outside or colder than Antarctica, Bob would still go out on his daily walk. During the summer of last year, he actually got me to sit outside with him during our breaks at work mainly because I had no one else to chill with. At the picnic table where we sat at, Bob was my “left wingman” while our other friend Brian was my “right wingman”. There at work, we were side buddies, wherever he was during break, I would be. A certain somebody had told us at one point we were “two peas in a pod”, because we were a lot alike.

Bob was also a very hard worker, he loved to work, and whenever he was on a holiday vacation, he would always tell me, “I’m so bored. I wish I could skip this vacation and go back to work.” Every morning I would always wait for him to arrive, and he would greet me with a smile and a wave. I greeted him normally with a handshake. Bob had also served in the Navy for 5 years, back in the 1990’s. He always reminded me how he proud he was of having military experience as well as background. He would always mention he took good care of his people no matter what the situation was. I was very honored to have a friend who took their time to defend our country. On Veterans Day I had thanked him for his time and he answered with “Thank you, I appreciate it.”  I noticed for the last months that we had shared together, we hugged a little tighter and we laughed a little bit more, I never understood it then like I do now.

I would do anything to have him still here, mainly because I miss him in general. He always reminded me that he cared about me and I always told him the same as well. I wish he wouldn’t have worried about me, but however I worried about him just as much. You could say we were stuck like glue side by side. We loved talking about astrology together, we’re both Aries with our main planet as Mars and being an Aries had a lot to do with us getting along,. For Christmas, I gave him an Aries necklace with two pennies glued together, it was a symbol of our friendship. He gave me a sign to hang up on my wall next to my bed that stated “Let your faith be bigger than your fear” in other words “Don’t worry, be happy.” It always reminds me of him whenever I look at it now.

We both knew we didn’t care what people thought about us, we knew we were weird but that’s what made us unique. Our age difference of 25 years didn’t mean anything to us as well, we were each other’s support for a lot of different things in our lives. I think we found each other as an escape from reality but then again, we still knew we were living in reality. We liked a lot of the same music, I got him into liking the band “Nickelback” while he got me into liking “Depeche Mode”. There are still a lot of songs I can’t listen to because it reminds me too much of him, “Dust in the wind” especially. I loved watching movies with him because we would always point out which character reminded him of me with what they would say or what they would do and vice versa.

We lived in every moment, we always forgave each other whenever we got mad and we always tended to never argue that much. I always had that feeling in my gut that something was going to happen but I never understood what. If I would’ve known it was losing Bob, I would have hugged him at the last moment I saw him. His hugs were the absolute best, in fact, before we became friends I remember I was having a really bad day and no reason at all, he came up and to me hugged me just to cheer me up. I will never forget that moment just like the millions of others moments that we shared together.

We had so much planned for this year, I was just so grateful I got to see him one last time and got to talk to him on the phone for one final hour the night before he passed away. I wrote him a note on how much our friendship meant to me the week before he passed away and he read it while on the phone with me the next day, he told me it was “Sweet”. I know that when he died, he knew that I cared about him and that I loved him dearly. I know he knew that, mainly because I’ve proved it to him so many times in the past.

I remember sometime last year while Bob and I were hanging out at his place and we started talking about what kind of animal we'd be like if we passed on. Bob clearly stated to me,

 "Oh, I wouldn't be an animal. I'd be a Red Tail Hawk, that way I'm always on the lookout."

 I then asked him,

 "So would that be your sign that you're ok?

 He responded,

 "Exactly."

 Well recently, my boyfriend, Dylan, and I were on our way to his grandparents, I spotted a Red Tail Hawk perched on an electricity pole and it stared right at me. I couldn't believe it, my heart dropped to my stomach, and my eyes started tearing up. I automatically knew it was Bob and I instantly felt happy, I know he is definitely in a better, happier place.