Last week my brother Bob was laid to rest, with full military honors, at Pikes National Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He passed away in November from complications of Parkinson’s Disease after a six year illness caused by viral encephalitis.

The military honors were very moving and emotional and I was teared up all the way through the ceremony. The Navy Honor Guard, the Rifle Team, and the Honor Bell crew performed their jobs perfectly and with great precision. I am sure Bob would be happy with how they did it. The Cemetery workers who were almost all volunteers were very soft spoken and gentle with the families and explained how everything would go. I didn’t take any photos of the ceremony. I wanted to be fully in the moment to honor Bob and show my appreciation for the service members and volunteers in the ceremony and there and taking photos requires stepping back (at least for me it does.)

I talked about a little bit about Bob and recounted a few stories of events in his life. My sister, Ellen, the verbal one in our family gave a heartfelt talk. The VFW Chaplain gave a wonderful message as well.

Brother Bob, Sister Ellen, and me way back when.

And a more recent photo of the three of us. Ellen and her husband live in town so Bob will have family visit him from time to time.

And here is Bob and I on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. You knew when he visited there was going to be running going on. We would take off and he’d leave in the dust, he’d run back from time to time to make sure I was okay and then take off out of sight again. He ran over 50 marathons and over a hundred half marathons.

Here is his spot. He’ll have a marker in a few weeks.

He is going to be under the big Colorado Sky and have a great view of Pikes Peak in the distance, and he’ll be in the company of thousands of veterans from all branches of the service. He loved the Navy. He served twenty years as an enlisted man and after he retired, he worked another ten years as civilian employee.

The US Olympic Marathon team trains in Colorado Springs not so far from the cemetery. I know in spirit he’ll be lacing up his shoes to go run with them and trying to talk his fellow vets to go with him. He was a great running ambassador.

So long Bob, you will always be remembered.