Loss

by Jim Bellomo | Jan 4, 2019 | Uncategorized

I fully realize this is supposed to be a travel posting. That I should be writing about travel. But to be honest, life got in the way. There was a great post on why you should use a travel agent I was going to write or a note about why we like to cruise. I had some time, so it would have been a good one.

But about 10:30 this morning Kathleen came down to my office where I was working on some travel stuff and she was crying. She said she had some bad news. She had read on Facebook that one of my oldest friends had passed away on Wednesday. His name was Bob. Now I have had three close male friends in my entire life and for some reason they are all named Bob. Seriously. This Bob used to live here. He worked with the yearbook company that I still work with. I have known him since 1982 when I joined the company. Since our other two Bobs have come into our life, we always refer to this Bob as “Original Bob,” because he was the first Bob in my life.

That’s “Original Bob” in the middle between me and Phil (who worked with us for a while). We were at Teatro Zinzanni in I want to guess 2003 or 2004.

When Bob and I first met I had a sales territory in Eugene, Oregon and Bob had a sales territory here in Redmond (where we now live) that encompassed most of the Seattle  area. We would see each other twice a year at business meetings where, because my last name started with B and his with C, we almost always wound up rooming with each other. He became my favorite person I worked with because he was so worthy of being a friend. He was the FUNNIEST person I have ever met. His wit was so quick it outpaced mine by a mile. He was smart-funny. He was so many things I wished at the time that I was. Confident. Good looking. Well dressed (wow he was well dressed), a great husband and father and so much more.

After I had spent nine years in Eugene and decided to take a territory here in Washington I found myself living in Leavenworth with most of my territory being north of Seattle. That meant to get to any of my schools, I would need to drive 125 miles each way over a mountain pass. And since I had about 30 schools over here, I would have make that commute 8-10 days every month. Bob and his incredible wife Cindy and their two boys Chris and Drew quickly offered me their guest room (actually their couch) and for the next six or seven years I spent 6-8 nights a month at their place. Those nights were amazing. Spending time with the Coutures was always fun and Bob would teach me things about yearbooks and selling yearbooks that no one else ever had. He was a true mentor. During that time, they would come and see us in Leavenworth as well but business-wise Bob and I talked about five times a week even after I stopped that commute.

A few years later, Bob became my boss. He took the position as regional manager for the Northwest and did absolutely terrible at it. Not because he wasn’t a great manager of people (because he was) but because he HATED the politics of it. He didn’t last long doing the job (I want to say less than a year) and when he went out (after 20+years with the company) he did it the right way. He took all his good company friends out (using the company credit card) while we were in San Diego for a meeting and we had the party of a lifetime. And then the next day, in front of an open meeting of the entire region, he just quit. And really lambasted the entire culture of the company (which needed it when he did). It was awesome. Pure Bob.

I need to mention that before he left that job he and Cindy helped me get through my divorce. Bob was there to talk whenever I needed to talk. He was my friend and he proved it during that time. They were the first of my friends that Kathleen ever met. They loved her from the get-go and that really confirmed how I felt. I remember us going out to brunch with them the first time I came over to see her. It was the first of many outings we would take together. Most memorable were a particular night at Desert Fire here in Redmond, seeing Teatro Zinzanni for the first time and the aforementioned dinner in San Diego. Bob and Cindy were one of only six people from the company at our wedding. And sadly, we lost another of the six less than two months ago.

After he left the yearbook company, Bob joined and ran a financial news magazine about the mortgage industry for a few years. As I mentioned, he was a GREAT manager and he did great at this as well. He eventually decided to take the magazine digital and asked me to be the one to do that with him. I was both honored and thrilled to be working alongside him again. We would probably still be doing this but corporate politics did him in again. He just didn’t want to be bothered with the crap and I don’t blame him one bit.

Soon after he and Cindy moved to Arizona, where he went back to his original job (my original job too) of teaching school. He taught drama and…what else…yearbook. From that point on though, other than them coming up here or us going down there (which happened about every other year), it was Christmas cards and tweets and Facebook posts. But I always knew I had a friend if I needed one.

While I know that I haven’t seen Bob since last Christmas (2017), we had plans to see him and Cindy this March at their place. And it’s just not fair that I won’t get to see him again. Getting old sucks. Not from the aches and pains and the memory loss but from the friends you love that you lose. I will miss you Bob.