Bobbie had been a long-time good buddy of my elderly next-door neighbor Ed Faris, with whom my family had also had a very positive "give and take" relationship --- i.e., Ed and I would each provide occasional assistance in appreciation for the other's kindness and generosity. So after Ed had to go to the nursing home, Bobbie began keeping an eye on Ed's property and performing household tasks as necessary. So one time when Ed had said that I could borrow a certain item from his house, Bobbie and I had gone there to retrieve the item for me. Since the item was something that I borrowed occasionally instead of just that once, though, I asked Bobbie to tell me where in the house he stored it, so that I could just go get it myself whenever I needed it, instead of having to ask Bobbie to go there and get it for me each time. "Well, of course I trust you, Fred," Bobbie replied, "but since I'm the caretaker of Ed's house, I would really rather not tell anyone else where I hide his valuables, since if anything went missing, I wouldn't want someone like you to be wrongfully suspected of stealing. Only I know where items like this are, and so I want to keep it a secret." "Well, I can certainly understand and respect that, Bobbie," I said, "and so I would never presume to ask you to tell me anything that you weren't comfy with revealing. But it would really be more convenient for me if I knew where this item was stored, so since you know where you put it, let me just look into your ear and see if I can read your mind about where the secret location is." "Okay," smiled Bobbie in amusement, and stood sideways by the sunny window of Ed's house so that I could peer into his ear-canal. "Can you see light through there?" he chuckled, as if there was so little "gray matter" inside his head that I could actually see the bright sunlight shining in through his one ear and out the other. And of course, there were actually TWO ridiculous implications there: first of all, of COURSE there was a brain inside Bobbie's head, just like all humans possess --- I wouldn't be able to "see straight through" his ear-passages in ANY case, no matter what his IQ happened to be! And second --- just like where the sharp-minded Warren Davis (whom by coincidence I had actually first met on Ed's property some years earlier, when he was supervising the digging of a septic-system) who had jokingly told me that "I never had one --- you can't LOSE something if you never HAD IT TO BEGIN WITH --- remember that, Fred!" when I'd mentioned to him that I was losing my mind over a difficult/complicated task and asked him how long ago he'd lost his --- the ultra-solid-on-his-feet Bobbie was anything but "hollow-headed", in that he was actually quite shrewd and sensible.

Bobbie was always kind and friendly to me.  And most importantly, he and Charlie saved me from drowning in the summer of 2002 --- I literally might not be here if it hadn't been for them!

Sorry to hear about Bobby.  Our condolences to the family.  He was a friend and neighbor. The picture IS Bobby Farnsworth.  

My heartfelt condokences to the family and my friend Julie. May God hold you and bring some measure of comfort at this difficult time. 

Joanna