April 16 Robbie, DEAR Robbie!

Friday:  There are many, many (too many to count) negatives about David and Carol living so far away--I could list them, but it would take TOO LONG! Sigh. However, there are a FEW benefits! Some are almost too obvious to state (i.e. getting to come to the beautiful state of Florida and having no hotel costs) ... 

Here are several pictures of my college roommate, Robbie. 50 years ago this August, I walked into my assigned dormitory room during freshman orientation and ... there she was! She was TALL (same height as myself!), she was super friendly, she had a great smile and a hilarious way of laughing AND she had a way of making you feel like you had been a friend all her life. What a difference her friendship made during that year at Baptist College. But more than that, we have stayed friends all of these years.

There have been times during this 50-year friendship where years and years have gone by without being face to face. At one point, I think it was several years that we did not even connect via telephone! Shame on me. 

We discovered a few years ago that Robin resides within an hour of David and Carol ... IN FLORIDA, for pity's sake! So now, every time I go go Florida, we make it a point to spend a few hours together. We did that very thing on the 16th of April. It worked out that Robin was grand-sitting her daughter's kiddos just 23 minutes from Safety Harbor, in S. Tampa! David was good enough to drive me across town to arrive at 8:30 AM. We spent the next 4.5 hours laughing, talking, and just catching up with each other.

I love Robbie so much. She is someone you can be yourself with ALWAYS. What's more, she truly loves me. What a blessing she has been in my life.

Robbie's grandchildren (from her daughter, Aimee) also have a grandma on their father's side--she is called "BiBi" and I got to meet her. She is a scream. She brought over THE MOST DELICIOUS Cuban pastries and breakfast sandwiches! They were amazing. 

Laughing with Robin is so refreshing. She is one of the funniest people I have ever met. Our freshman year was so precious. Robin married Scott at the end of our sophomore year--and actually, I believe she dropped out of school the first semester of our sophomore year to work and prepare for their wedding while Scott continued his Missions education degree. I missed her terribly when she left. But I WAS in her wedding and I also played the piano (shock) at her wedding reception--just background music, and I was situated way in a corner where hardly anyone could see me, which suited me just fine.

Robin and Scott went on to have four beautiful children: Aimee, Benjamin, Carissa, and Dallas. They served in the field for many years--in Chad, Africa -- and then in Peru, along the Amazon River. They were "De-Wittness in De-Jungle" (their last name was DeWitt). But then they left ministry and eventually moved to Alaska where Scott continued flying small planes. I believe it was the year 2000 when his plane crashed in a snow storm and Robin became a young widow and single mom. She has since married another very nice man and is enjoying her life with him very much. 

The first three pictures were "selfies" taken with my camera ... these full body pictures were taken by my brother, David, when he returned to take me back to Safety Harbor. 

I'm not sure what we were laughing about in this picture, but trust me--it was hilarious, because Robin is SO funny.

Oh, Robbie. You are such a dear dear person. How blessed that we can see each other almost yearly!