On the day of Robbie's passing, we had an earthquake. Scientist and the news can call it and say it was a natural disaster all they want but all of us know it was Robbie making his own entrance into heaven. I asked for a simple rain storm, but you know Robbie, he had to do things his way. If you knew Robbie really well then you knew he had a big amazing heart. He cared a lot for his friends and family. No matter what. He stuck by them. He was the type of person to give you the shirt off his back. He always knew how to make people laugh at their time of need. Robbie was Benny's pride and joy, Carol's first baby boy, Lee's protector, Kelly's best friend and Patrick's keeper. Most of all he was Dana's world and Ashley's hero. All of his nieces, nephews, stepkids and grand babies thought the world of him and couldn't get enough of him. He had a lot of friends who thought the same too. I wish I could name them all standing here but then we would be here all day. There is one thing we all know is no matter what we are one extended family. Throughout this Robbie found his faith in God and it never faltered. Robbie was and will always be an inspiration to me and to many for the many battles he has had to face. And that this isn't goodbye cause we will see him again one day, His nieces and nephews want him to know that they love him and will miss him. But they know he is no longer in any pain and whenever they go outside look up to the sky they will smile cause they know he is looking down on them smiling. As I close I have a poem his daughter, Ashley wanted to be read
and a cure was not to be
so he put his arms around you
and whispered,
"Come to Me"
With tearful eyes we watched you
and saw you pass away
and although we love you dearly
we could not make you stay.
A Golden heart stopped beating
hard working hands at rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us
He only takes the best
I love you Daddy
I'm going to miss you, Ashley
I know this should have been put up like 3 weeks ago. But I went on vacation and I really didn't want to write on vacation. I already had to work on the dvd... and after today I will try to put that up on facebook if I can.
My uncle was a great man. I loved him so. And if you could of seen the receiving friends you wold of seen all the types of people who were there. I mean he had people from the Hell's Angels, the Spartans and the Warlocks.. the people he rented from... friends from everywhere. People he worked... people he grew up with and hadn't seen in years. My grandma even got a letter from someone that grew up with Robbie in Saxon telling her of a story.. This is the type of guy he was... Here is that story... This guy was name Todd. And he said he was about to start high school so he had to be about 15 or so... and he was sitting out of his front porch thinking of how other people were buying new clothes and shoes for the school year and his family was barely getting by with food on the table... He kept looking down at the his old raggedy shoes. Robbie come up and sat down to talk to him.. and asked him how he was doing and just started talking to him. Well Robbie noticed Todd looking down at his shoes so Robbie asked to switch shoes to see if they wore the same size... so they did...After sitting there talking a little while longer, Robbie got up and said “well I better get going before it gets too dark” Todd went to go take off the shoes and Robbie told him to keep them... The shoes were fairly new..... My grandma never knew that until after my uncle had passed. He was an amazing man..
Now for the events that unfolded at the week before he passed if you didn't see my status updates... That week was so crazy and emotional. And had so many ironic things. If I wasn't a believer in irony/miracles or things like that before than I am now.
Not long after getting there he went into a coma like state. He really didn't respond. That room was packed. I know when the doctor came into checked and looked around he said you have a very extendly large family. Now these events might not go in order... he went in on a thursday night... so that friday we noticed two red cardinals hanging out by the patio there. If you have never been to the hospice house they have a little patios outside the rooms which can be quite peaceful on a good day. My great great grandmother loved birds and my grandma loves cardinals so she say when she sees them she says its her grandmother looking out for her and my aunt says its my grandpa(her daddy) looking out for her.. Those birds hung around till Monday. And on Monday there were 3. Tuesday they day of his passing they never came back. They say birds carry your souls. It's one of the ironic things. Gives me chills bumps... all of this does. On saturday I believe maybe it was still friday his hands were starting to feel cold.. reminded me of Charlie's. That's what I told them too. So we were thinking it wasn't going to be long. Then the next day. Which I do believe it was sunday he breathing had stabilized and color returned to him...
I was thinking what is Robbie doing? Anyways that same day... we lost him for 59 seconds... I'll never forget that day. I was sitting on the couch with his daughter Ashley and we were both distracted by the laptops... two of his childhood friends were there... Dana his wife and someone else was in there. Everyone else was across the hall in the canteen. He took this funny breathe...So we all kind of just stopped for a minute till the nurse came in and we told what happened and all she said was I believe that was it... so she started checking... She was about to call time of death..by that time everyone had already crowded the room crying... and he started breathing again . But at first they were saying it was reflex breathing that he was really gone...then a nurse asked if he was a jokester and we said yes.. she said he was playing one on us. We believe he heard everyone crying and it scared him and he didn't want to leave. Another nurse said she has worked there for over 20 years and has never seen anything like that ever.
That monday when we got up there he was being responsive. He was grunting and moving his left arm around. That day I told my mom he is waitng to be alone I can almost guarantee it.. he doesn't want anyone to see him go. That night I talked to him.... it was just he and I in the room, I told him about Charlie and told him it was okay and we were alone... and he kept grunting... makes me wonder if I had left him alone for a few minutes if he would of went.. The next morning, which is tuesday, That morning he was panting... and the nurse said it was matter of hours... so we were all rushing to get ready of who all wanted to be there. Dana and my grandma left the room to get coffee and wait on everyone... Well while they were in the canteen this black lady came in... my aunt said she looked like she was a patient there... They hadn't seen her before. She came in humming a song and the only words they could make out was Jesus... she came by patted Dana on the shoulder went to the sink came back by did it all over again to my grandma and Dana. 2 secs later the nurse came in and said he was gone... a few hours later we had a earthquake. Like I said earlier in my speech I asked for a rain storm.
The irony in the black lady is.. I haven't read the book but the sunday school teacher told us... in that book the shack... jesus appears as a black lady and singing songs or something like that. The last ironic thing is we buried him the same day I started fighting for my life a year ago. Anyways this is what my week was like. I know its not much saying about my uncle... but I can't really say much besides he was a great amazing man... always made someone laugh.. would give the shirt off his back to someone. He had such great faith and it never faltered even though he knew he was dying.. Most people when they are in that situation they turn they other way and he didn't. He got baptized. And he would even brag about seeing Jesus before everyone. He would lift you up even when he was down. He was a great man.
