I am the Force and the Force is with me.

[orangerful]

Two Sundays ago I went to my Star Wars Club meeting and some of the guys were acting a little off and I was wondering what happened, but figured it was something I missed because a lot of the group discussion has moved from the club forums to facebook and I'm not on facebook anymore. Well, I had missed something - one of our long time members, a really nice guy and someone who had worked with the library for my programs, passed away that very morning. Or, as Pat put it, one of our own became one with the Force. It was quite a shock. We weren't super close, but I had known him for over ten years and had seen him at the club meetings and Star Wars events at the library. But he had been dealing with cancer his whole life and apparently it came back with a vengeance a few months ago. He was a very private guy when it came to his illness so only a few people in the club knew.

So that was a really sad meeting. Instead of talking Star Wars, we all went around and talked about Bob and our memories of him, which was so cathartic. His R2-D2 is the one that danced with the Obamas, he was so proud of that. I ended up crying because how could I not? Bob was the first member of the club I met and anytime he saw me he would say "SAAAAAAAM!" and come over to chat. He brought R2-D2 to several library events and we would always chat about his next droid project. His Luke Skywalker collection was EPIC! Pat came came up to me after the meeting and said he was sorry he made me cry and I said it wasn't him, it was the universe.

The library sent flowers. I went to the viewing later in the week and I was holding it together until I saw R2 and BB8 sitting up front by all the flowers, then I started to tear up (and then I felt bad because I made his wife cry). I thanked his wife for letting him spend so much time with the Star Wars club and going to events. Only 49 years old, just so sad, but he lived a very full life and I overheard his wife saying his son wanted to learn how to work R2 (though his son is still in high school...I can't even imagine).

Bob's obituary said that people could send flowers OR take a child to a Star Wars movie.

So, where ever you are now Bob, thank you for booking a Star Wars club meeting at the library so many years ago and telling me that I was invited to come down after my shift ended. I'm a better person for knowing you because you helped me find all my people.

May the Force be with you.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I so liked your post title :) I remember it was only a year or two after I had been on LJ that I saw the first in memoriam post of a fan who had died. There's nothing like births or deaths in a group to make it realize it is a community.