Hola! Its been almost a year since Rob came closer to our hearts. I have been visiting this blog since then, I never wrote anything in because I didn't think it would be appropriate. Rob was not a close close friend of mine, nor was I related to him. But I too have suffered his loss.
A good friend of mine had lost her fiancée the same way, he was in the Spanish Air force, and when I told her about Rob and how I wasn't sure whether to write or not in the blog, she told me to go for it. Something that helped her through out the difficult times was the fact that people she didn't know would share stories about her fiancée with her, and they really meant a lot to her and helped her out.
That is my reason for finally writing, I want to share what Rob meant and means to me with the people he loved and love him. Maybe this will also help heal your loss.
I met Rob in Jacksonville Uni, during my freshman NAVY ROTC orientation. He was one of the platoon Sergeants. I had just gotten to the States from Madrid, Spain. I had no clue what I was doing or was supposed to do. They were calling out the names of the people and I didn't hear mine. Finally I raised my hand and told them. Rob came up to me, a very handsome boy, I thought, and very nicely asked me my name. So I answered, smiling, "Maria". Then he asked me for my last name, and I told him. From that moment on he started laughing and "yelling" that if I thought I was a princess, everybody was referred to by their last name except for me, I gave him my first name...Ooops! Little did I know that he was just playing around.
Through out ALL of our orientation he was the one that would ALWAYS make me laugh. He knew I was from Spain so he would talk to me in Spanish, and he would ask me all the time if I liked Ricky Martin. He would sing to me Ricky Martin songs like "Maria" and would constantly ask me if "I was living La Vida Loca". And of course I would start laughing, and that got me in trouble...hehe
I never realized how much Rob had meant to me until I found out he had passed away. I believe in God and believe that he surrounds himself by the best, and that is Rob. I lost my best friend who was like my sister when I was very young, I could never deal with her death. But Rob has helped me to do so. I told Aldara to show Rob around Heaven, I can just picture the too of them laughing and having a great time, so positive, so full of energy.
Two very weird/special things happened to me last September: Last time I had seen Rob was 6 years ago, I had thought about him many times, wondered how he was. One day I decided to write to him and to other people that I missed but hadn't been in contact with since I left JU, like Bryan Gasparro, Nate Hemphill and Paul Craig. I only had Bryan's address. One day, I couldn't stop thinking about Rob, for that whole week. The following week a friend of ours wrote to me and told me Rob had passed away. I was so sad. But I believe the reason why I was thinking so much about him is because he came by to say good bye.
I told my sister what happened and she googled him and found this blog. The next day we were in the living room, my sister was comforting me, I was telling her stories about Rob and showing her pictures. I told her about the Ricky Martin song. And then I started crying again. Suddenly the CD player turned on and Living La Vida Loca started playing. We couldn't believe it; we didn't even know we had that song! We looked at each other and knew, Rob was there with us.
From that day I stopped crying, I was happy. I knew Rob was ok, I knew Aldara, my best friend, was with him, I can't wait to hug them both. I am happy now, can't stop smiling. I am going to make sure that next time I see Rob I can answer his question, "Yes Rob, I Am living La Vida Loca".
Maria E Coloma
mcoloma@hotmail.com
