What's the first word that comes to mind when you think of BOB?

I've been trying to distract myself a lot lately, but the reality is that my dad and the loss of so many loved ones has really been on my mind. While we were in Florida visiting DB, I saw our wedding pictures and noted the same trend as when I looked at the one's in our house: a lot of the people are no longer with us. I get that's how life is, but on some days it's just hard and that just sucks.

We all carry so much pain and loss around with us that on occasion it's just going to smack you in the face. And that's OK, sometimes you just need to feel sorry for yourself. Be in the despair. I mean you can't focus on happy memories every minute.
I haven't cried in awhile but but lost it today while reading Claire Bidwell Smith's post today on Life in Chicago. Her memories of her father's death and the time there after brought up vivid pictures of my own experience. Most notably, I remember the smell and thinking this is the smell of death. I didn't think I was gong to make it through those dark days both my emotional and physical self were so taxed. But I did. And now, I'm here looking back trying to make sense of it all and learning how to look forward again.

When I set up the Celebrating Bob Ning to plan the June 28th party, I had people answer a couple of questions as part of registering. The first question was:

What's the first word that comes to mind when you think of Bob?

I went back to the site today and decided to finish what had been my original intention when I asked that question, to gather the responses together and share them. I've been watching people fool around with word clouds from Wordle so I made this one.

© 2008 Jonathan Feinberg

The words that are larger are the ones that were repeated. It helped me today to see that friend, happy, laughter, one-of-a-kind and beard were the largest.

We all love you and miss you dad.
p.s. there's not a right angle to be found on the stone shed!