Gravel Guy

I had a bizarre and interesting day yesterday. I should say I had an interesting night after I left school yesterday. It started with a meeting about unemployment and displaced worker benefits. Not a meeting I ever expected to be invited to. It was interesting and I learned a lot about stuff I never hope to use.

On my trip home I was waved over by an old friend who wanted to chat about some difficult times in their life. So I was standing by the side of Hwy 65 giving a listening ear to a friend who had been estranged for strange reasons the past 2 yrs. Very odd but good to have some healing happen even if it was during a conflicted time for my friend.

Last, my wife called to let me know that Bob Roth had passed away. I consider Bob to be a friend even though we have probably shared all of 12 hours together in our lives. Bob owned a road construction company that was a family company. By some odd twists in life I became a very small part of that family. I will share with you the quickest version I can of how we connected and then spend much more time on why he is worth a blog. During my year off from teaching I took a position for a few months to train as an Investment Advisor in McGregor. Bob was a friend and worked on Dollars for Scholars with my boss. He would come into the office on occasion to discuss business for that organization. One day he needed help emailing pictures of some heavy duty equipment he was selling. So I helped him. He was "amazed" for some reason about my computer skills. Bob looked at me and said I should hire you to do this stuff for me. I jokingly answered back, you can't afford me Bob. Thinking this was all in good fun, I turned away to continue my computer work. When I looked back, Bob was staring at me and said, "How much?". I told him what I needed and he says that's what I was thinking. Well, nothing really came about from that although he was serious at the time. Jump ahead a few months and I'm at the Home Show in Mora and there is Bob and his son Brian. They stop me and tell me they were just talking about me. I ended up doing a few hours of computer work and meetings for them to help them apply for grants in bidding for Government construction jobs.

Bob welcomed me into his family without reservation or judgment at a time when I was feeling quite left out and lonely in the world. There were only a few times we got together but it was always as if I was an integral part of the business and that I belonged to his family. I am quite certain all of his employees felt the same way. I was fortunate to observe this at the Christmas party I was surprisingly invited to be a part of. Bob understood that you expect a lot from yourself and those who you worked with but you also gave a lot to help and support those very same people. If you were a part of this in any small way, you were completely a part of it, no matter how insignificant your role really was.

Bob was critically burned while welding on a fuel tank in his shop at his home. He passed away yesterday. This is as close a family as I have ever observed and I can't imagine the grief they are experiencing. He touched my life in a few short hours and showed me what loyalty is all about. Bob, if you can read this from heaven, I'm saving a grill for you and I'll be looking forward to that Friday supper we never got to have!