By Billy Watkins

         She nonetheless talks to him.

         “Good morning.”

         “I’m dwelling!”

         “I had a pleasant time right now.”

         “Goodnight.”

         “The times are OK. The nights are terrible,” mentioned Pam Cleveland, whose husband Bobby died April 28 from accidents suffered in a two-vehicle accident at age 67. “I get up through the evening, respiratory these brief breaths that Bobby breathed earlier than he died.”

         She has good pals who’re serving to her via this — Mary Ann Hood, whose husband Orley died in 2014, and Ann White, who misplaced her husband Hal in 2013.

         “They’ve jogged my memory that there isn’t any proper or mistaken technique to grieve,” Pam mentioned. “I stayed in mattress sooner or later till 2 o’clock within the afternoon. I felt unhealthy about it. If I haven’t cried in two days, I really feel unhealthy about that. They inform me that tears will come. They’ve made me perceive that I’m not doing something mistaken.”

         She was ecstatic when instructed that the Pearl River Valley Water Provide District, which oversees the Barnett Reservoir, is naming Lakeshore Park in Brandon in honor of Bobby. The letters for the signal have already been ordered.

         Few have accomplished extra for the reservoir than Bobby, first as a longtime open air author with The Clarion Ledger, after which as public relations liaison for the Barnett Reservoir Basis.

         “Lakeshore was Bobby’s joyful place,” Pam says. “He cherished that park, cherished the occasions that he helped placed on there. We might experience round on Saturdays and Sundays to totally different locations, however we at all times needed to experience via Lakeshore.”

         I went to Lakeshore Park late Monday afternoon to as soon as once more pay respect to my good friend of almost 45 years and co-worker for 3 many years. Thunderstorms had been brewing and portray an eerie, lovely sight. A cool breeze, the primary I’d felt in weeks throughout this brutally sizzling summer season, touched my face. Soothing, bodily and mentally.

         I left simply earlier than the rain got here.

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         Every time Bobby died — whether or not it was April 28 or 20 years later — he was going to go away a bigger void than most. He was a giant man. However his presence was gigantic. So, too, had been his good deeds that few folks knew about.

         That’s why these closest to him are struggling so badly. Sure, this can be a story a few demise. Nevertheless it’s additionally a narrative of household, of discovering one’s soul mate, of how one individual can positively have an effect on so many individuals.

         I lately requested my journalism brother, Rick Cleveland, how he was doing. “I don’t know,” he mentioned. “I actually don’t understand how I’m doing. I simply attempt to keep busy.”

         Rick’s spouse, Liz, was extra blunt. “I’m indignant,” she mentioned. “I really feel we obtained cheated. It’s one factor in case your physique provides out or there’s some sort of illness. However to only be taken so shortly is the worst.”

         Their kids, Annie and Tyler, are devastated as properly.

         Liz did handle to snort when recalling how Bobby used to examine Tyler out of daycare and set out on adventures, which sooner or later included going to see the film South Park — not precisely age applicable for Tyler on the time. “He wouldn’t inform us he was selecting him up,” she mentioned. “He’d simply go get him.”

         Susan Brashier, who labored with Bobby on the reservoir for 12 years, wrestled to search out the fitting phrases.

         “We noticed one another virtually day-after-day,” mentioned Brashier, a contract CPA. “He grew to become certainly one of my greatest pals. Me and my husband (Kerry) vacationed with Bobby and Pam. I simply really feel uncontrollable unhappiness, complete disbelief, denial. Each time I see a white truck, I hope it’s Bobby driving up.”

         And you may guess your greatest boots that tons of and tons of of hunters and fishermen throughout Mississippi are grieving. Bobby related with them as a result of he was certainly one of them. And he gave them a voice and data they’d by no means had.

         “Bobby talked The Clarion Ledger into placing an enormous emphasis on open air protection,” Rick mentioned. “He instructed them, ‘On the identical day when 60,000 folks present up for the Egg Bowl and we put out a particular eight-page part about it, there are 200,000 folks out searching and fishing throughout Mississippi. They’re starved for protection.’

         “The paper purchased him a bass boat and people folks learn his tales. I’d go across the state to talk at totally different civic golf equipment and folks would come up and say, ‘Aren’t you Bobby’s brother?’ Others would say, ‘I learn your columns each Sunday, Rick. However I at all times learn Bobby’s outside column first.’

         “Individuals learn Bobby who had by no means hunted or fished a day of their lives. He was that good of a author. He didn’t write at you, he was speaking to you. It was a dialog, and folks grew to really feel like they knew him.”

         Brashier recalled how indignant the fisherman grew to become when the reservoir needed to be sprayed for salvinia, a moss that may aggressively take over a lake or reservoir.

         “They’d name and Bobby would discuss to them, or he’d get in his boat and exit and go to with them,” Brashier says. “Bobby would clarify that he didn’t prefer it, both, however that it needed to be accomplished and it could assist the fishing in the long term. By the point Bobby obtained via, they had been glad it was being accomplished.

         “That’s why I say that since Bobby died, we’re sorta misplaced. No one knew the reservoir like Bobby. Each inch of it. And no person may discuss to the individuals who use the reservoir the way in which Bobby may.”

         Bobby and Brashier didn’t hit it off properly.

         “I’m a CPA and he was saying ‘Let’s go rent a band, put them at Lakeshore Park and see what occurs.’ I mentioned, ‘That takes cash.’ However he knew what he was speaking about,” Brashier mentioned. “That grew to become the sundown concert events at Lakeshore.  He additionally began The Rez BBQ occasion, the Steak Cook dinner Off.

         “All these occasions have introduced acknowledgement to the PRVWSD. Individuals have at all times thought we had been stuffy. Now they notice we’re about group.”

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         On the morning of the accident, Bobby obtained up round 5 a.m. 

         “There was a fishing match happening on the reservoir,” Pam mentioned, “and he wished to go make certain they had been launching and every little thing was going properly with that.

         “He got here again dwelling round 8:30 or 9.  I had a gathering with a good friend of mine that morning. I instructed him I used to be leaving, and he jogged my memory he was going to Lakeshore Park to arrange for the sundown live performance that night.”

         Not lengthy after that, Pam acquired a name from Trevell Dixon, chief of the reservoir police division. “He instructed me Bobby had been in a wreck and that I wanted to return on,” Pam recalled.

         Brashier was driving to the park the identical time as Bobby. “Simply three or 4 minutes behind him,” she mentioned. “Once I drove up on the wreck and noticed Bobby’s truck, I simply parked within the highway and took off working to him.”

         Brashier climbed into the passenger seat as emergency personnel started slicing Bobby from the wreckage. The influence had smashed within the driver’s aspect of the truck.

         “It was unhealthy,” Rick mentioned. “He had crushed ribs, a crushed hip, a badly damaged leg. It was going to be a horrific restoration course of if he lived.”

         “I knew it was unhealthy after I arrived,” Pam mentioned, “as a result of there have been so many police vehicles and firetrucks there.

         “I walked down and noticed Susan beside him. She requested if I wished to sit down with him and I instructed her no, to only preserve speaking to him.”

         “He was talking clearly,” Brashier mentioned. “We had been having a dialog identical to you and I at the moment are. He even jogged my memory, ‘Don’t neglect the recent canine within the again.’ I used to be mentioning something I may consider to speak about.

         “However lastly he mentioned, ‘I really like you, too, pricey.’ That meant it was time for me to cease speaking. He was in plenty of ache.”

         After they lastly eliminated him from his Chevrolet Silverado, Pam rushed towards him.

         “They’d him on a gurney and about to load him into the ambulance. I couldn’t get proper beside him, however I instructed him, ‘I simply need you to know I’m right here!’ He mentioned, ‘Sure, darling. I do know.’ ”

         Brashier started organising for the night live performance. Pam, Rick, Liz and Tyler headed to St. Dominic Hospital. They had been quickly capable of go to with him.

         “He was in important ache,” Rick mentioned. “I knew he was in bother as a result of I used to be taking a look at his important indicators and so they weren’t good.”

         Bobby complained that he couldn’t breathe and started taking these brief breaths that Pam hears in her sleep. All of a sudden, these brief breaths stopped. The household was requested to step exterior. They had been capable of revive him.

         However what nobody knew was that certainly one of his damaged ribs had puncture a lung.

         “The physician lastly got here out and he was shaking his head,” Rick mentioned. “He put his hand on Pam’s shoulder and mentioned, ‘We simply couldn’t save him.’ ”

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         Individuals got here to Bobby’s memorial service at Lakeshore Park from almost each area of the nation.

         “It was a turnout like I hadn’t seen since (legendary author) Willie (Morris) died,” Rick mentioned.

         Brashier was a psychological mess and much more so due to the tent she was capable of purchase.

         “There have been one million issues happening within the Jackson space that week, and there wasn’t a tent to be discovered,” she mentioned. “Lastly, a man mentioned he had one. I didn’t notice it till we unpacked it … it was a circus tent. Crimson and white. I went straight to Pam and mentioned, ‘I’m so sorry.’ She mentioned, ‘Don’t fear about it. Bobby would adore it. It’s good.’ ”

         Within the days since, because the cellphone calls have dwindled and life has moved on for the remainder of the world, there was the standard reflection.

         “I had prompt to Bobby we go to lunch first, then arrange for the live performance,” Brashier mentioned. “He wouldn’t do this, he wished to get every little thing accomplished after which go eat. Perhaps I ought to have been extra persistent. I don’t know …. it’s simply one thing I take into consideration.”

         Pam is hanging onto the 22 years they’d collectively. It began when Bobby walked into North Liberty Grocery in Canton. Pam was working there. It was her ex-husband’s retailer, and it additionally had a bait store.

         “Bobby was so form and humorous and sensible,” Pam mentioned. “We laughed so much. Dwelling with Bobby was a ton of guffaws since you by no means knew what he was going to do or say subsequent.”

         Bobby grew near Pam’s kids and grandchildren. Her grandsons Cooper (12) and Bo (9) Purvis grew to become like Bobby’s personal.

         “Their dad, Kenner, wrote a very candy factor about Bobby on Father’s Day,” Pam mentioned. “And the boys have had a tough time. They cherished their Boboo (pronounced bah-boo).”

         Liz knew Bobby longer than Rick. They had been classmates at Hattiesburg Excessive Faculty. Working buddies.

         “He was the black sheep of his household, and I used to be the black sheep of mine,” Liz mentioned. “We did plenty of loopy issues. Every time Bobby’s dad and mom had been out of city, we’d throw a giant get together at their home. Being the older brother, Rick didn’t prefer it. He used to name us thugs. He was at all times the nice child. I truly thought he was a nerd. I do know that sounds loopy now.”

         Rick is making an attempt to deal with being the final dwelling member of the household he was born into. His father, Ace, died at age 68 in 1995. He and Bobby misplaced their mother, Carrie, 18 months later.

         Rick almost misplaced his brother not lengthy earlier than Ace handed. Bobby suffered the kind coronary heart assault generally known as the “widow maker.”

         “It’s a miracle he survived it,” Rick mentioned.

         For 27 years, it’s been Rick and Bobby. And so they made essentially the most of that point. In the event that they had been on the town, they’d see one another at the very least three or 4 instances every week. They’d prepare dinner, watch ballgames, sit and discuss. They’d come a great distance from their boyhood days in Hattiesburg once they fought a lot, Ace purchased them boxing gloves so they might remedy their variations with out an excessive amount of injury to at least one one other.

         As we talked, I may inform there have been issues Rick wished readers to know.

         “Bobby was an amazing athlete earlier than well being points restricted him,” he mentioned. “On the previous Van Hook golf course, the No. 11 gap was a 340-yard Par 4, and the final 70 yards of it had been uphill. When he was nonetheless in highschool, Bobby drove that inexperienced with a persimmon driver. Simply so naturally robust. Nice arms across the greens. He simply wasn’t consumed by golf.”

         Bobby’s passions had been cooking, searching and fishing. He and Rick each discovered to prepare dinner from their dad. “Bobby actually obtained into it. He may’ve cooked for a dwelling,” Rick mentioned.

         He discovered to hunt and fish from his mom’s stepfather, who lived in Houston, Texas. “He obtained actually good at that, too, and will’ve received a few of these tournaments he lined,” Rick mentioned.

         “However I’ll let you know what he was — he was a incredible uncle.”

         “Bobby took the time to have a private relationship with each single certainly one of us,” Liz mentioned. “Sure, he’d go get Tyler out of daycare. And when Tyler was a child and a toddler, Bobby would at all times present up at bathtub time — , the enjoyable running-around-naked time.

         “And he cherished Annie. She introduced out his candy aspect. They had been at all times going to lunch collectively. And when Annie was appearing, I don’t suppose Bobby and Pam missed a single opening evening, and that meant driving to Chicago and New Orleans.”

         On the day when somebody was supposed to select up Bobby’s ashes from the crematorium, “no person wished to go,” Liz says. “However Tyler mentioned he’d do it. He left and didn’t come dwelling, didn’t come dwelling. Didn’t reply his cellphone. Lastly, he walked in and we had been like, ‘The place have you ever been?’ He mentioned, ‘I’ve simply been using round Rankin County with Bobby, listening to Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen. I figured it was the final time I’d have him to myself.’ ”

         Bobby’s ashes will likely be unfold from the reservoir to the mountains of Colorado. Brashier and her husband took part of Bobby on trip final week to St. Marteen and sprinkled him into the Caribbean.

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         Christmas will likely be robust this yr. Bobby cherished the vacations.

         “We’d give one another gag items yearly,” Liz mentioned. “One yr, he misplaced his wedding ceremony band. When Pam would ask him about it, he’d say, ‘I simply took it off. It’s again there.’ Effectively, Pam discovered it on the ground sooner or later and talked about it to me. I mentioned, ‘Don’t give it to him. Let me have it for Christmas.’

         “I wrapped the factor in field after field. When he lastly obtained to the ring, he was so mad. He realized he’d been caught and we’d had it on a regular basis.

         “He was good at it, although. One yr, he gave me a present card to Bass Professional Store — figuring out that I might by no means store there. It’s simply not my factor. Effectively, Rick was going to get some tennis footwear so I gave him the reward card. When he went to pay, the cashier instructed him, ‘Sir, there’s solely 99 cents on this reward card.’ Bobby had purchased a card for $25 and spent simply sufficient to go away 99 cents on it.

         “Then one yr, I obtained about 10 totally different items — all with huge footage of Bobby on them. A t-shirt, espresso mug, even some in lovely frames.”

         These gadgets have elevated in standing, from gag items to valuable recollections.

         The Clevelands certain have plenty of these. Bobby made certain of it.

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