For those do not know me, my name is Shellie and I first met Jim over 25 years ago when he began to date my mom. I wrote and rewrote this speech a million times. How do you sum up someone and their impact on your life? But when I thought about Jim and what he meant to me, the same images kept coming to mind. There are definitely some words synonymous with Jim. For example, Bob.
I can’t even tell you when I began to call him Bob. Jim, led to Jim-Bob which was affectionately shortened to just Bob. Cards and letters were addressed to “Mom and Bob.” People would hear me talking about Bob and I did this, or I was telling Bob that and wonder who the heck I was talking about. But, eventually, others started to call him Bob, too.
Another word I associate with Jim – plaid. Jim wore plaid flannel shirts like they were going out of style. Always the same uniform, solid t-shirt with plaid button up over the top (except for formal occasions that called for a polo shirt). Lucky for Jim, he had help picking his clothes. At least we were guaranteed that we would see new colors of plaid twice a year...Father's day and his birthday. I would have said three times a year but his birthday and Christmas were so close together we could not separate the holiday. But that's okay, he would just get more shirts and that was just fine with him.
Jim also liked NASCAR. No, he loved NASCAR. He was a stereotypical Marlboro, redneck, cowboy, NASCAR race lover. Heaven forbid you visit on a Sunday during the race because you were watching NASCAR whether you liked it or not. I know more now than I’ve ever wanted to know about NASCAR because of him. I recently watched an hour-long reality show about a day in the life of NASCAR and was excited to tell him about how they fix the walls of the racetrack after a crash and all of the other tidbits I learned.
Packing…I will never pack a box or car without thinking about Jim. He is the only person I have ever known who could take 30 cubic feet of stuff and pack it neatly in 20 cubic feet of space. I can’t count the number of times I would be trying to put something away and he would walk over, sigh, shake his head, pack it up much neater and look at me and grin. The night before I moved out of our house to join my new husband across the country, I packed and repacked my car a million times and couldn’t get it all to fit. Quick and efficient, he managed to get everything in there AND leave me a way to see out the window. I don’t know how he did it. Maybe he was just looking forward to getting me out of the house.
Budweiser, Home Depot and Lowes, yardwork, camping, fishing and picnics – these are all things I will always associate with Jim. I will miss Jim's smooth, mellow, easy going style. His genuine smile and the way he laughed not with sound, but with his eyes. His willingness to lend a hand, his willingness to please. He wanted everyone to be happy and he did his best to make everyone feel good. So, let's get comfortable, relax, and share a story about Bob and when he made you smile.
