My fondest memory of Raymond Robinson was a discussion we had about the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness.
“I can’t understand why the Israelites were so stiff-necked. They had manna from Heaven and water from a rock, but they still couldn’t trust God,” Brother Ray said.
I went to church with Brother Ray for five years. Every time I arrived, I always went over to his chair and gave him a big hug. It was the second row on the far right, he always sat there.
Brother Ray was the closest person to a grandfather that I had. My grandfather died when I was nine. Brother Ray would always smile when I walked in and asked me how I was doing.
I remember interviewing him for a story I was doing on his wife’s retirement from the R. B. Tullis Library in the spring of 2000, he had told me that he was glad to be able to spend more time with his wife.
It made me mad when the Observer cut that quote out.
When the church had spilt and we both went our separate ways seven years ago, I still kept up with Brother Ray, which was easy to do. My father went to get his hair cut by Brother Ray once every few months. He had gotten his hair cut by Brother Ray for the last ten years.
His shop was severely damaged during Hurricane Ike and he had to move to another shop, Dad had moved with him.
Brother Ray meant a lot to me, he meant a lot to a lot of people.
I went to his viewing last Thursday, I was very confused when I saw him. He didn’t look like Brother Ray. Brother Ray had beautiful salt and pepper hair, this man didn’t have any hair. Brother Ray was a large man, this man looked to be about half the size of Brother Ray.
My face must have shown my shock.
“You won’t recognize him, Darling. He’s not the same,” Ms. June said. “Oh, but you should have seen him on Sunday. He was radiant, I mean he just glew.”
Ray had bone marrow cancer and had to be on radiation therapy 24 hours a day to beat it.
“The cancer didn’t take him, Honey. The cancer didn’t beat him,” Ms. June said.
You wish so much when you know that someone is gone forever. You wish you spent more time with him; you wish you had gotten to know him better.
But you never think about these things until it is too late.
