Ode to Bob - 6/4/48 ~ 3/28/24 RIP
Generate excitement
Dear Gymnastics Families,
We are very sorry to announce the passing away of Bob (Robert) Thomas last Saturday Evening. Bob Thomas was one of our Special Olympic Gymnasts, dear Friend of mine and an city of Erie Icon for over 30 years. Many of you may know Bob from working at our gyms as a Security Guard, Maintenance, Traffic Director, Landscaper, and from the many Competitions and Shows Bob performed in for Erie Gymnastics Center.
Back Story:
Shortly after Tina & I opened Erie Gymnastics Center in 1990, we were very small (60 students total) and eager to advertise our gym and show off our new students. We looked for every opportunity to allow our gymnasts and their amazing skills to help 'sell' our Program. In the Summer of 1991 we were invited to be 'street performers' for the annual Erie Days Celebration. Eager to show off our gymnasts, we packed up some tumbling mats and a Mini Trampoline and headed down to Perry Square in downtown Erie.
We had a circuit set up in the middle of State St. where the gymnasts would tumble down the street on the strip mats, then turn around and run and hit the Mini Tramp and perform flips to the crowds delight. In the middle of our performance, a middle aged balding man jumped into line with the children and started doing cartwheels and headstands down the tumble strip and then straddle jumps off the trampoline. While in line, he was enthusiastically cheering for all of the gymnasts.
At the time, I didn't know this guy, or what was wrong with him and being nervous, I went and reported it to a nearby Police Officer who was watching the show. I said,... "Excuse me officer, I'm not sure if this guy is drunk or crazy, but he just jumped in with the children and started tumbling!" The policeman said... "That's just 'Bob'. He's special! He won't hurt anyone, but if you want, I can have him removed."
I thought for a moment and said... "Well..., No, I guess it's OK, he really seems to be enjoying himself."
At the end of the performance, we packed the truck up with the equipment and Bob helped. He said... "How did I do coach?" Politely I said "you did great job Bob!" He seemed thrilled with the compliment and said... "I'll be at practice this week Coach!"
At that point, I didn't think I'd really ever see him again. This was just one of those odd situations in life where you have a chance encounter with someone. He didn't ask where we were located nor our phone number. He just wandered off back to the various Erie Day events and we left.
Sure enough - mid-week, he showed up at the Harborcreek gym. I didn't hear a car or van pull up, he just walked into the lobby. I didn't recognize him at first. He came dressed in a Security / Police style Uniform. I was in the middle of a Team Practice, and he approached me and said... "I'm here coach!, but first I have to do my security check!" He went outside, and walked around the perimeter of the building in Harborcreek. I could see him pass each of the exit doors as he circled the building. He came back and said... "Everything's safe!" and then went into the bathroom.
He came out dressed in this gym outfit that looked like those long shorts the Harlem Globetrotters wear & a tank top, with the gym shorts pulled up way over his belly button. The kids giggled a little as he took to the trampoline, but he was happy as a lark! He bounced & flipped around and always 'stuck his landings' throwing his arms in the air, fingers straight, with a dramatic stomp on the mat. (then he'd peek around to see if anyone was watching.) Truthfully, I still was a little 'weirded out'. I mean you could tell he was 'Special', but I didn't know him, no adult nor guardian signed any release papers for him, he didn't come with any case worker nor guardian, ... and how did he get here??? No one dropped him off, and there were no buses that were routed on Iroquois Ave.
After a 3/4 hour or so... he was sweating, got tired and went to the bathroom with his backpack. This time he came out with a Penn Dot style "Road Construction" uniform with the yellow vest and reflective tape! He said he was going to bulldoze the driveway! Still leery & unaccustomed to his antics, I said... "OK Bob, you do that."
I was in the building for 3 hours or so with the Team and every so often he'd come in and get a drink of water from the water fountain. At the end of my practice I went outside and WOW!!! I had been busy but intended to get to the weeds at our entrance garden. Bob however got to it first and had weeded & raked our entire front garden better than it would have been done by professionals... AND... he went along the entire driveway and filled in all of the potholes (we have a ton at Harborcreek). I was amazed at how good he did the work!
I didn't ask him to do it, he just did it, but it was really well done work! I kind of felt bad, and I never want something for nothing, so I handed him $20 and thanked him for all of his hard work! He said... "I'll be back next week for practice Coach, and he walked off down the driveway.
From that day on, Bob showed up every Wednesday. He'd come, do his Security Check, change clothes, do some Gymnastics, then change into his Maintenance outfit and he'd find something that needed done... and it would be done - (He did the best job of anyone on my staff {including me} on the mirrors). I'd pay him - what I'd pay someone else to do the same thing... and he'd walk away.
He began to become a mystery to us. He'd show up for every gymnastics event that we'd get involved with. We didn't know where he lived or who watched over him, or even how he'd get to the gym.... I wasn’t sure if he could read or not, but he didn’t have an email to really get any of our information. Still though, he’d find out and show up for every event.
Bob would find out about a Show we were hosting or a Competition, and Bob would just show up for the event. It meant so much to him, so we’d work him into the Event and always allow Bob to perform as sort of the finale act. The crowd would always be polite and cheer for him as he performed his routines. However the cheers were well earned… especially as he got older… in that here was a 70 year old man out on the floor doing really good Cartwheels, Round-offs, and his classic “headstand” that he could hold forever. Many 40 year olds couldn’t do what he did.
To Bob, everything was a ’Competition’. We found that he Loved Awards and the more the better! We always have plenty of Medals, Certificates, Prizes… around the gym, so we’d present him with a Medal and he cherished it as if it were real Gold. Frequently Bob would come in with stories about how he won other Medals at Events. We could tell these weren't Gymnastics Medals, so where did he get them??? Slowly we started to figure out that Bob frequented ‘other’ places and ‘other people’ gave him awards too.
Over time, just like the Policeman knew who he was, he'd mention things about his life ‘outside’ the gym. Just like he "worked" for us at Erie Gymnastics Center, we found out that he worked at other places in the same manner he came to us. For example: He mentioned that he competed in the National Dishwashing Championships held at Dominick's Restaurant. He came in and showed me a trophy and a certificate he won. Out of curiosity, Tina & I went to eat at Dominick’s one day. While sitting there I asked the Manager if a guy named ‘Bob’ worked there. We found out that Bob… just as he found us, he adopted the owner of Dominick's.
The owner described it the same way... “On Thanksgiving, Dominick’s Restaurant offered free meals to the homeless & downtrodden. Bob walked in to the back kitchen, and just started doing all the dishes. He was initially 'weirded out' too, but admitted that he worked harder and did the dishes better than any of his regular employees so he gave him a Free dinner. Ever since then he’d show up every Thursday and do dishes at Dominick’s, and the owner would give him dinner. So every Thursday he 'worked' at Dominick's for the dishwashing Championships! They as well found that he liked trinkets and awards and gave them to him too!
Bob had a different job every day of the week for some business he adopted. He was a landscaper for this place, a Security Guard for Gannon, and Odis 12 was another one that he frequented, however I've not met them yet. We know he frequented the Trampoline Park and the Trampoline place in the Millcreek Mall. Bob was known all over town.
Bob came to the gym weekly and always started practice with the same joke. He'd say... "Hey Doug, I was at Burger King, and I was eating a Cheeseburg (not Cheeseburger - but Cheeseburg) and I got Mustard in my eye! (to which I was always to reply…) "Bob, You're a Hot Mess!" I was never sure why that was the correct response, but he'd wait anxiously until I'd say... "Bob! You're a Hot Mess!" and then he'd let out a huge belly laugh. Eventually all my Staff & many of the Booster Parents learned this response, and Bob would go from one coach / parent to the next with the same joke and laugh out loud every time. After awhile, he'd vary the joke, but whatever it was... the sauce was always in his eye. Thanksgiving Time -- "Hey Doug, I was eating Turkey Dinner and I got Gravy in my eye! "Bob--- You're a Hot Mess!"
Get Fit at Erie Gymnastics Center
Bob is God
True Story: Bob had been coming for a several years at this point and his antics and idiosyncrasies had become routine. Every time he came... it was the same routine... Security Check, “I got Ketchup in my eye”, Trampoline, Cleaned or Gardened... and he went home. One Wednesday Bob walked in at a difficult time. Bob loved to be publicly acknowledged and anytime I was ever talking with (whether it be to the Team, Staff, or a Parent) he'd kind of interrupt and he'd remind me to tell - whomever it was - of his recent feats in Gymnastics or stellar work at the gym. One Wednesday I was in a private conference on the side of the gym with a heated Parent over a very ill behaved & disruptive student. It was a serious and heated conversation, one of which if the Student / Parent didn’t back off, we’d be minus one student. Bob, not understanding the body language of the confrontation walked right into the middle of it. He was seeking to be acknowledged for his latest endeavor and go through the whole -- "I got syrup in my eye from Pancakes - Hot Mess - thing!" Not in the mood for this, I immediately snapped at Bob and told him to 'get out and find something to do or go home', and went back to my discussion with the Parent & Student. By the look in his face, I immediately realized how much I hurt his feelings. By the time I finished my meeting with the Parent, I went to find him, but he had already gone home. I felt awful. Bob was always happy. Nothing got him down. Sometimes I was envious of him. He was childlike in that he was happy with the simplest of life’s pleasures. A good Cheeseburg, jumping on the Trampoline, making a silly joke... all made him happy. So for me—someone he looked up to and always played along with his routine, he took it pretty hard. That night, I was miserable. I turned out the light and faded off to sleep figuring somehow I’d make it up to him. Around 3:00am in the morning, I had an extremely vivid nightmare. In my dream, I had passed away. How or why, I have no idea. In the dream however after passing away, I was walking along a cloud on a misty foggy road toward the majestic pearly golden gates of Heaven. As I approached the gates, I could see a friendly looking older man standing just outside the gates. As I drew nearer, I realized that the older man standing there was Bob. “Bob!” I greeted him, “What are you doing here?” Bob smiled gently and replied… “Well, you could say I work here.” However immediately, the voice & speech pattern that initially gave you a clue that Bob was slightly mentally impaired was NOT detected. Rather, he sounded extremely intelligent and in command of the English language. Bob walked up and put his arm around my shoulder and said… “Doug, we’re going to review your life on Earth.” I immediately shuddered with fear & panic, and realized that we were going to go backwards through my entire life… starting with how I last treated an elderly mentally handicapped man. I knew that this wasn’t going to be pretty & I squirmed to get away from the inevitable judgement I was about to receive. In a cold sweat, tangled in my blankets I awoke from the nightmare with a sense of impending doom. I sat bolt upright and caught my breath realizing that it was just a bad dream. Not being able to settle down, I reached over and shook Tina while she was sound asleep. Tina roused to me shaking her and still fuzzy replied… “Huh… wazza matta— what’s going on???” I replied… “Bob is God!” Really confused, Tina tried to shake her head and understand what I was talking about. “Tina”, I said… “Bob is God!” “Bob who?” she replied… “What the hell are you talking about???” “Bob Bob” I replied… “Bob from the Gym!”. Frustrated that I wasn’t making any sense, she rolled over and went back to sleep. However to me, that dream was a sign! That was a warning! I’m not very ’religious’ anymore. As far as I was concerned, I’ve done my time of 8 years in a Catholic Grade School, 4 years in a Catholic High School, and about 10 years teaching in a Catholic Grade School. However, in this case, I’m thoroughly convinced Bob is some kind of Angel sent to Earth. Bob completely had me review my life and ’how I treated other people’, especially those to whom… “I / we” view as somehow ’beneath us’ or somehow I/we have ’status over’ them. In truth, I didn’t realize how easy it is and how often it happened to me. I also started to ’note it’ in society in general. In Business, I’ve met many ’so-called’ important people—Business leaders, Politicians… however we treat their office secretary as if he/she’s nothing or no one. I don’t know how many times it happens in my own business. As the ’Head Coach’ or ‘Business Owner’, and one who determines the future of some ’upcoming athlete’, I get treated with respect from the Parent, however my office staff or assistant coaches gets treated like their mud when they are asked to do something I instructed them to do. In the hospital, the Doctor gets all the respect, yet the lady that cleaned my room and kept it sanitary is just a peon and doesn’t matter. Bob taught me an extremely vital and valuable lesson, and ever since, I’ve tried to be cognizant of all people in my life. Every since that dream, my relationship with Bob changed. We didn’t know much about his life ’outside’ the gym, but we tried. As an example, we didn’t know if he had any family— he referred to a lot of people (we didn’t know) as “Mom” or “Sis”. Thus, we didn’t know if he had a place to go for “Family Functions”. Thus, when we had a “Family Function” at our home, Tina & I invited Bob. Bob came over for many a Thanksgiving Dinner. We’d have to have dinner late so that Bob could finish the “Dishwashing Championships” at Dominick’s Restaurant for the Homeless. I’d drive over to Dominick’s and pick him up. He’d come over, eat dinner, watch a TV show with us, and then I’d drive him home. Bob was not only adopted by us, but our extended “Gymnastics Family”. Bob was invited to and attended various Senior Graduations, Team Parties, Holidays…. Many a parent at the gym picked him up or dropped him off at home after one of our functions.
A couple Special Bob stories
Bob was robbed - One day we got a call that Bob was in the Hospital and had been ’jumped’ / robbed while walking on the street.
Bob really got around town. Bob seemed to know every street and every bus route in the entire city. We eventually figured how Bob got to Erie Gymnastics in Harborcreek. Bob would take the bus to the K-Mart Plaza on Buffalo Rd. and then walk about a mile & a half to get to the gym.
Sometimes just driving thru town for whatever, there Bob was walking day or night, Rain, Snow, Sleet.... As said before, I was sometimes envious of Bob. He was always happy, and the weather never seemed to get him down. It didn't matter if it was pouring rain or driving Snow, there would be Bob... heading to where ever he was off to that day smiling and plodding along.
So one night, we got the call that he was at Hamot Hospital. It seemed that some punk decided to rob Bob one night. He roughed up Bob and stole his backpack with many of Bob’s worldly & precious possessions.
We’re not sure exactly what happened or why, but the punk roughed up Bob and he had to go to the hospital for minor cuts and bruises.
~~ I shouldn’t tell this story in that I likely may get someone in trouble, but the Police soon caught the man who did it. The guy who did it was sent—awaiting sentencing to the Erie Co. prison. It just so happened that we had a Parent at the Gym who worked as a guard at that Prison.
The ’Prison System’ has its own code. There’s a lot of ’trade of services’ conducted by the inmates for goods or perks in prison. I was told that some ’horse trading’ for a few perks (be that extra meals or more free time or some fresh baked goods) was traded to the toughest guy in that prison to pay a visit the guy who beat up Bob—and explain to him Never Ever Ever mess with Bob again. I was told that by the time that guy got out of prison, he humbly learned—never to mess with Bob again.
Level 9/10 State Championships
Level 9/10 State Championships: In 2008, Erie Gymnastics Center hosted the Level 9/10 State Gymnastics Championships. For those of you reading this who don’t understand the Level system in Gymnastics, Level 9 & 10 are the two highest Levels of Competition in the Nation. These athletes are the best of the best competing at the sports highest level. With that said, the Coaches who Coach these levels are some of the top Coaches in the country & world.
These Coaches are Professionals (meaning they are paid to coach) and therefore their job relies on them producing results. Just like any other sport, if their athletes are producing, then they’re likely to lose their job. Thus, Level 9/10 is the most prestigious yet cutthroat competition in the State. The athletes are serious, the coaches are serious, the competition is serious!
As host and Meet Director of this prestigious event, I had to ensure that ALL of the rules were strictly adhered to and everything had to meet specific standards. In addition to the Teams, the very top ranked 17 Judges in the State were assigned to Judge the competition.
At many of our smaller, less rigid competitions, Bob liked to show up and always wanted to perform. We’d always find a way to include Bob and let him do an exhibition routine at the end of the event and present him with an award. However this Event—was NOT one of those events.
The event was held at Family First Sports Park. The athletes had just finished warming up and were assembling behind the curtains awaiting the March In ceremony and introductions.
Just then I see Bob out of the corner of my eye show up and starting to walk across the ropes that separate the spectators from the equipment. OMG—I ran toward Bob. Bob greeted me and was dressed in his ’maintenance outfit’ with the day glow yellow and reflective tape. “Bob!” I said… “Um, the traffic and parking outside is a mess, can you go direct traffic?” Bob was delighted to be given this chore, and I thought that’d keep him busy and away from the competition. I turned my attention back to the start of the competition and went behind the curtains to see that everyone was ready.
All 17 of the prissy Judges were assembled and seated at their perspective events awaiting the start of the competition. Just then between the curtains, I saw the ’day glow’ of Bob’s yellow safety jacket out in the middle of the floor heading to the Uneven Bars Judges. I couldn’t get there fast enough, Bob had beat me.
He reached out and grabbed one of the oldest (& had a reputation of being the toughest Judges in the State) and started bear hugging her!
I don’t see this Judge too often in that she’s from the Philadelphia area and predominantly judges on that side of the State short of the State Championships. I didn’t know what to do as I raced over there to grab Bob, but what happened next floored me.
As eager as Bob was to hug her, she was hugging Bob back and gave him a big Kiss! Bob saw me running over and said… “Doug, this is my MOM– Nancy!”
Bob had a sort of ‘code’ with the words “Sis” & “Mom”. After getting to know any women who consistently treated Bob nicely he referred to her as his “Sis”. A woman had to have a significant impact on Bob to be referred to as “Mom”.
So here was Bob—referring to Nancy Claire—one of the toughest National Level Judges in the Sport from all the way in Philadelphia—as “Mom!”
I was literally bewildered!
It turns out that the Judge—Nancy Claire—some 40 years ago was the head of the Pennsylvania Special Olympics Gymnastics Programs. Every year the PA Special Olympics hosted their events on Penn State’s campus in State College, PA. Every year Nancy would head up the program and it was there that she met Bob. She must have treated Bob very special to earn the title of “Mom”, but year after year they forged a very Special & strong relationship.
In talking with Nancy afterwards, she had worked with Bob for years and looked forward to him gymnastics performances year after year. She said that She & Bob had become pen-pals and they wrote each other often—even up to the day of that State Championship. She said—a week before Bob’s Birthday in June, Bob would send her a letter reminding her that Bob’s Birthday was coming up! LOL!
All those years she’d send him little care packages and Christmas Cards…. At one State Meet not too long ago, Nancy stopped me at the State Championship. She told me to meet her at her car. Apparently a man named ’Bob Thomas’ was running for Mayor in her Phili suburb, and she stole the sign— “Bob Thomas” for Mayor. She made me pack it up and take it back to Bob — who was thrilled, and started his first run for Mayor of Erie! —-
Covid & Politics
Our Story
Covid & Politics Bob was into politics to a certain extent. It was funny to listen to him as he got the idea in his head to run for Mayor and picture the city being run by Bob! It would certainly be different. The first thing he’d likely do would be to install Trampolines in every City Park in Erie! However, sadly, I do believe it was politics that led to Bob’s early departure from this world.
When Covid hit, it took us all by shock. I mean we were all frightened and none of us knew what was going to happen. It was about a week before Governor Wolf— mandated that ALL non-essential Businesses shut down, that we had shut down. With good prudence, we voluntarily shut the gym down. After all, kids are ‘walking contagions!” They stick their fingers in their mouths, they pick their noses, they have to touch everything, and then they come up and hug you and then sneeze right in your face.
However when Gov. Wolf forced everyone to shut down, I started to take the matter the other way. After a bit it became apparent that ‘politics’ had taken more hold of Covid than did the virus itself.
You started to see very silly rules and laws being passed that in no way had anything to do with Covid. As a small business, some of the rules and laws became outrageous as to how ‘some were being treated’ and then us ‘peons’.
However in “Bob Land”, everything that Bob loved in the world and everything he looked forward to had been forced to be ‘shut down’. For Bob, every gym, trampoline park, and the Mall were shut down. For Bob, all the small Restaurants were shut down and he couldn’t go and wash dishes because there were no dishes to wash. He couldn’t get his routine ‘Cheeseburg’ because we were all shut down. He couldn’t attend the 4th of July Parade to march in with the Gymnasts because that, Erie Days, Memorial Day Parades… all were cancelled.
We tried to keep Bob part of our life during Covid, but it wasn’t the same to him. He came to do some gardening and such, but the gym wasn’t even open, and we didn’t even have anything to pay him. However, just prior to the ‘shut down’, we—Erie Gymnastics—hosted one of the last Gymnastics (Stars & Stripes—late January) Competitions at the Bayfront Convention Center. As the world sort of healed, we were also the first Event to be held at the BCC the following year.
We had to ‘limit attendance’, put spectator chairs 6 foot apart, require everyone to wear masks… but we were the first to re-start society as we had known it.
Bob attended this event. As Bob had done for many years past, Bob was always the last routine of the night for the Men’s & Women’s Main Event.
It was one of the only time I’d ever heard Bob swear. We didn’t know what was going to happen, but Bob was extremely eager to perform in the Stars & Stripes. So, we got everyone’s attention on the microphone to look over to the Men’s Floor and we introduced Bob!
Bob went out onto the floor, and decided that before he was going to do his routine, he was going to give Governor Wolf a piece of his mind. Bob went out into the middle of the floor and started on a rampage. He mixed many profanities including the ‘F’ word into his tyrant against Gov. Wolf. Bob wanted him fired and fired immediately!
I had no idea how to stop him because he was all wound up and needed to release his stress. He’d almost never swore in front of me before, so I was sort of lost and just let him rant.
When he finished his rant, he just started his Floor Routine. The audience still applauded him as generously as always, and the Judge gave him a Perfect 10.00 and we presented him with his trophy.
But since ‘Covid’, you could tell that Bob wasn’t quite the same and his trust for society was somewhat shaken. I mean I’m supposed to have all my faculties, and I couldn’t really make sense of Covid, so I can’t imagine what effect it had on Bob whose whole world revolved around Trampoline and a good Cheeseburg.
Bob's Dream
LAST STORY—
Keri Keri McCloskey is another story and a child who changed, shaped, and touched my life. Keri was a gymnast who was part of Team Lightning for way to short of time until brain cancer took her from us. Keri was an aspiring Optional gymnast who traveled almost an hour and a half each way to train at our center. Keri at age 11 developed brain cancer and passed at age 13.
It was the saddest funeral I’ve every attended—sadder than my Parents. My parents lived a long live, traveled throughout the world, loved, had children…. This young child—at age 13—the most important thing in her live was Gymnastics. Our Team attended in their team uniforms, shortest to tallest and passed the casket to pay their final respects. Keri passed in the early summer.
During the summer, Bob sometimes was scarce. When it was an Olympic Year, Bob wouldn’t even come at all. He’d hide out (we think) so that we’d believe he was attending the Summer Olympics where ever it was in the world. As soon as the Olympics were over, Bob would show up again with medals on his neck and tell us how he won! This was Bob’s way.
So, on the summer of Keri’s passing, we hadn’t seen Bob. Just as well, I don’t think I’d want him to try to understand or deal with that issue. However, about a week or so after her funeral, Bob un-expectantly showed up at the gym.
Bob sort of knew the Girls on the Team, but I doubt could name any of them. He could name some of the Parents, especially those who were ‘Sis’ or ‘Mom’s’, but rarely did he know any of the gymnasts names.
At any rate, he came in that day and didn’t start with his normal… “I got Spaghetti Sauce in my Eye— You’re a Hot Mess thing”, instead he said… “Doug, I had a dream!” I said “That’s interesting Bob! What was your dream about?”
Bob said… “I had a dream that I was in Heaven!” He then went on to say… “I was bouncing on this huge trampoline! As big as you could see in any direction!”
I laughed trying to envision this ‘infinite trampoline’ in ‘Bob’s version of Heaven’! Then he said… “While he was bouncing on this Trampoline, he met a young girl who was also bouncing on the trampoline... (and this sends chills up my spine to even write this) and the girl told me to tell you she said ‘Hi!’.”
At this point, I already developed goosebumps. I said… “Bob, what did this girl look like?” Bob replied… “Um, she was about 12 or 13, blond hair and bright blue eyes—held his hand up to indicate how tall she was. I'm sorry, I forgot her name”.
Now I’m absolutely positive that Bob had not been around to hear work about Keri. I also know that since she traveled from Greenville, her obituary wasn’t in the Erie News, but in the news down there. So Bob did not know from any of us that Keri had passed away.
At any rate, I tried to pump Bob for more information. You always had to do this with Bob to try to decipher what facts were, in that what he considered important in more serious matters weren’t what we might consider important. So pressing him, I asked… “Do you remember her name Bob???” “Could it have started with a ’K’ or something like that Bob?” He said… “Yeah, I think so… Cara or Carly… maybe Keri???”
I was floored. I had to get several other coaches, parents over and had Bob repeat his story. We were all floored!!!
That day I got home and called Keri’s Parents. I felt I had to tell them. They knew of Bob from their years at the gym. They are a very religious family and they were extremely comforted in hearing the story. I really wasn’t sure how they’d take it, but they were comforted by Bob’s story & dream.
To me, it only reconfirmed my “Bob’s God” notion.
Thanks Bob!
I could go on and on with Bob stories from over the years. With Bob it was always an adventure. As mentioned throughout this story, we only got 1 day a week with Bob. Over the years we’ve met many people who Bob touched their lives the way he touched our lives. Bob was put here for some reason, but he has left a lasting impact on all that had the pleasure to meet him. RIP—Bob Thomas—until we meet again on that great Trampoline in Heaven! Great—Ugh! I’ll still have to be coaching in heaven—Thanks Bob!