Just One More…

In Memory of Bob Tomlin

April7

A friend of mine lost her husband in a car accident yesterday. He died at the scene after being hit head-on by a 79 year-old veteran who apparently lost consciousness at the wheel, crossed the median, and was also killed instantly.

Jess, my friend, is a moderator at Connected Moms and though I’ve never met her “in real life”, my heart is broken for her. She and Bob have four children together, Fiona (11 months), Hope (3), Blake (10) and Mikaela (12). I keep thinking of Jess, her children, and what they must be going through at this moment.

Skip and I were at the grocery store, at the checkout and goofing around, and I thought of Jess. I thought what it would be like if tomorrow, Skip was gone and just the day before, we had been being silly at the grocery checkout. How does that happen? How is that fair?

Me worrying about being pregnant and pee sticks seems so horribly unimportant right now. Life is so precious, and you might forget what those around you — the ones you see every day — truly mean to you. In an instant, they can be taken from you, just as Bob was taken from Jess yesterday, and you just have to remember to be thankful for what you have.

The staff of Connected Moms has organized some meals to be sent to Jess and her family so that she has one less thing to worry about right now, we will be sending flowers to the service and there is also a collection being taken for support for Jess. There is a web site with more information at http://loveforjess.wordpress.com

The following is an article that was in the paper today about Bob (http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_5617480):

Crash victim remembered as father, inventor, jokester
BY DAVE ORRICK
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 04/07/2007 02:24:48 PM CDT

If the basement makes the man, then one need only look at Bobby Tomlin s basement to see the life he led.

“The whole basement is his, and he loved it,” his wife, Jessica, said this morning. In that basement of their Mahtomedi home, Tomlin, 38, played out his favorite roles: father, inventor, and jokester, she said.

Tomlin was killed yesterday when the van he was driving collided head-on with a van carrying military veterans along Interstate 35W in New Brighton.

The driver of the Veterans Service van, retired St. Paul firefighter and World War II veteran Richard Carroll, also died. Carroll, headed north on I-35W, was taking home two fellow veterans from the VA Medical Center at Fort Snelling, when the van crossed the grassy median, across the highway s southbound lanes and collided with Tomlin s van, which was just beginning to exit the interstate at County Road 88, according to the Minnesota State Patrol and Jessica Tomlin.

The two other veterans, both of Chisago City, were admitted to Hennepin County Medical Center. This morning, Richard Kerr remained in critical condition, and Bob Butte was listed in satisfactory condition, a nursing supervisor said.

This morning, Jessica Tomlin recalled her husband as a “quick-witted” and “colorful” guy with an insatiable curiosity.

“He was a very-very-very smart man,” she said in a telephone interview.

“He never had a formal (college) education, but he would go to the Goodwill store, buy a book on physics and read it and understand it.”

The couple grew up in St. Paul. Bobby Tomlin graduated from Open School, and 9 years ago, they settled in Mahtomedi. They have three daughters ages 11 months, 3 years old, and 12 years old and a 10-year-old son.

By day, he was a fire alarm technician. Off-hours, he ran a watch-repair business in his basement, where he also tinkered, constantly drawing up inventions, and entertaining his family and friends.

“He could make puns off anything,” Jessica Tomlin said. “He always had a smart comment to make.”

None of his ideas have been patented. “They were the whole spectrum of things,” Jessica Tomlin said. “I don’t understand most of them.”

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