Willmar Ridgewater College Presentation

This presentation was given to a composition class at Ridgewater College on Tuesday, February 20, 2018. A movie of Robert through the years played on the screen behind me. I could hear the soft music he played and occasionally his voice, both as a child and as an adult. I spoke, not because I wanted to, but because I felt I had to. I spent two days, putting my emotions into deep lockdown, and I managed to get through most of it without falling too far apart.

We hope to have a copy of the recording from the day, and when we do, we'll share it here, but for now here is the transcript of what was shared.

I found the event more and more difficult as heads began to lower, and tears began to flow and I met a young woman who, if I understood her correctly, whose dad recently died, also killed by a distracted driver. I held her and hope that she will contact me in the future.

This is what I shared with Robert's movie running behind me:

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"Let’s start with this quote from the Tribune article by Janet Moore and Tim Harlow that most of you have already read: “Inattentive driving contributed to more than 86,000 crashes and 74 deaths between 2011 and 2015, according to the State Patrol”.

When you read this statement, you see the numbers. But for me, I see more than numbers. I see and FEEL more than numbers. I see my son and I feel the deepest stab of grieving anyone can imagine, because in that number – the number 74, as in 74 deaths, is my son, our son, our only child, Robert.

His dad and I were married right out of college and took 5 years to settle into our new community and our jobs. We were both educators and professional musicians and the next 5 years after that were what we thought were going to be the toughest of our lives.

We got pregnant and miscarried a dozen times over those 5 years and despite everything the doctors did to try to help, nothing worked and they had no definitive answers as to why my pregnancies all ended abruptly within the first 6-12 weeks. We were told that we would never have a biological child. I often repeated this sentiment: “I wouldn’t wish infertility on my enemy – It's so sad. It hurts. It’s just so painful.”

Long story short, 5 years later (15 years into our marriage) we were pregnant again, and I carried this baby to full term. He

was a miracle and we never forgot that. Our little family of three was perfect and though we thought maybe this was a beginning of multiple pregnancies, that never happened.

But today, this story is only partly about me and my husband. I want today’s story to be mostly about Robert. His birthday was Thursday, April 8th, 1993 in the wee hours of the morning. He was two weeks late and one of the bigger babies in the neonatal unit at 10 pounds, 11 ounces and 23” long. His beautiful deep grey eyes blinked at the brightness of this receiving room and when he cried, his deep throaty voice surprised us all. My husband carried him to the nursery and, on the way, named him after my father, who died when I was 19. His middle name, Joseph, was a nod to his father, Terry Joseph, and his great grandfather, Joe.

We made the decision that I would stay home full-time for at least 2 years and we discovered the challenge of living on one income. The only "extra" money we spent was when we hired a nanny so that Robert could travel with us when we played in our band, Frontpage. We were really never far apart and Robert’s life became the most important and seriously defining piece of our lives. We never, ever forgot the miracle of his birth.

His life was probably a lot like yours.

He grew up in Willmar. He went to preschool and kindergarten, and all through middle and high school with many of the same kids. He went to church with us every Sunday and loved the parks and lakes in the area.

At 5 years old, Robert wanted to begin piano lessons and so we found a teacher that would take him on with the caveat that if he couldn’t sit still for a half an hour then the lessons would have to stop. With the deep desire to learn how to play all the themes from “Star Wars”, Robert sat still for lessons and for practice and quickly began to master the piano.

His musical interests only grew from there as through the schools, he learned cello, stand-up bass, trumpet and French horn. At home, he also taught himself to play the guitar. It seemed easier with each added instrument and as he matured, we discovered that the throaty voice we’d heard early on had matured into a deep and resonant singing voice, so we spent many hours listening to practice (and experimentation) on all the instruments. We attended the orchestra, band and choir concerts and any and every musical opportunity he could find.