Goodbye Bobbi

Last week, my (great) Aunt Barbara, or Bobbi as we all called her, died. She was 86 years old. Bobbi was my grandmother's sister on my dad's side of the family. Because my grandma Chadwick passed away long before I was born and because Bobbi and her husband Carl never had children, they were a big part of our lives growing up and were thought of like grandparents. Barbara was the last of my "grandparents" still living.

We'll always remember Bobbi for her warm smile, unending generosity and her ability to spoil us silly. When we were kids, my brother Curt and I used to love sleeping over Aunt Bobbi's house because that meant we'd get to sleep in "tent city," drink Coca-Cola and sweetened coffee and stay up to the wee hours of the morning watching old westerns on Uncle Carl's big box TV. Bobbi would take us to Ames and let us buy one (or maybe two) new toys and she always sent us home with a bag of freshly baked cookies or homemade pies. Such sweet memories.

Saturday was Bobbi's memorial service at her old church in Meriden. I was prepared to read a poem, but just before the service started, my mom showed me a note that Bobbi had clipped out of a newspaper and placed in a box labeled "important documents." My mom found the box when she was cleaning out Bobbi's things after she died. The note was so perfect and so Bobbi that I decided to read it instead. If there's one thing you could count on when you visited Bobbi, it was a smile.

Bobbi's Clipping:

A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without making poorer those who give.

It takes but a moment yet the memory of it may last forever. A smile creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business and is the sign of friendship.

It brings rest to the weary, cheer to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and is nature's best antidote to trouble.

Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something of no value to anyone unless it is given away.

Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours. No one needs a smile so much as he who has none to give.


Goodbye Bobbi, we love you very much! This picture really makes me smile.