Page created by: Catharine (prefer Cathy) Flowers

Bob was a wonderful person, and 15 years after he died, I am still in love with him. He was diagnosed with PD 3 years after we married, but once the diagnosis happened, he could think of specific incidents over 4 or 5 years that he attributed to PD. He was diagnosed at 42, but the first neurologist said that although it looked like PD, it couldn't be, because Bob was too young. Two more neurologists confirmed the diagnosis before the first one would agree. Once MJF acknowledged his PD, the neurologist finally decided that early onset was possible.

He taught me to value myself, which I had definitely not learned at home. The only time I ever saw him really angry was when he heard my mother tell me that "If I had had your baby brother first, I never would have bothered having you, because I really only wanted the boy." He did what I could never do, and really told her off.

We saw "The American President" shortly after it came out on videotape. Bob loved movies, but by 1995, his PD made it difficult to sit in a theater, so we bought virtually every movie that came out. As we were watching it that first time, he suddenly sat up, stared at the screen, and asked me to back the tape up a bit. The scene was MJF and Mike Douglas walking outside the White House, and getting to a door where they were going to enter. As the scene replayed, he told me to watch carefully. I didn't see anything. He had me stop the tape, and told me that he had seen a movement in MJF's hand as MJF reached for the door handle that was much like his own movements, and he told me right then that MJF had PD. It was a couple years later that MJF told the world that he did, indeed, have PD.

He had bad hallucinations and delusions near the end, and I woke up one night to find him beating my face. He thought he was beating up some guy that I had found on the street in our town, and brought home and put in bed between Bob and me. At that point, he decided, once he understood what had happened, that it wasn't safe for me for him to live at home. I had to put him in a skilled nursing facility, where he lived for 8 months before he died.

The dog we had when he died never forgave me for making Bob go away. She was his, at her own choice, and she got back at me. She died on an anniversary of Bob's death. I am convinced she knew what she was doing.

Bob had many. many friends, and was trusted and valued in his job. He was an aerospace engineer, and an artist. I am also an aerospace engineer, and Bob loved that I was ranked a labor grade higher and made more money than he. When people would ask him if that bothered him, he always said that he didn't see any problem, he just enjoyed spending the money. We worked together for many years, and because of the power of his wonderful personality, nobody ever tried to play us against each other. We truly enjoyed the time we had together, and I will never forget the wonderful memories.