Robinella

Almost forty years ago,(that seems impossible) I met Robinella Allen. Robin later became my college roommate. She not only had a unique name, but she was a one of a kind! Robin was an only child and was from Livonia, MI, just outside Detroit. She had little tolerance for anybody that she didn't immediately like. Luckily for me, she liked me. Robin ate things that I had never been exposed to like pistachios, black olives and peanut butter pizza. There was a restaurant that would deliver to our dorm and she would order pizza with big globs of peanut butter on it. We became quite a pair. I spent most of the time apologizing for something rude that she said to people. She spent most of her time trying to speed me up!~ She had legs that seemed to come to my shoulders. She used to tell me that I should sue the city for building the sidewalks so close to my butt.

Robin was thin and tall and had stylish clothes. She had eye makeup in every color! She walked fast and she talked fast. Her parents had run a night club in MI and worked a lot at night. Robin always resented not having siblings and a close family. She had all the material things that she could ever want. She loved coming to southern IL and spending the summers with her maternal grandparents. For her, the small town and unlimited attention was heaven.

Living in a dorm room with Robin was an experience. She was spoiled rotten and would throw temper tantrums when things didn't go her way. The worst one that I remember, was when she literally tore the phone OFF the wall!! She would scream and throw anything and then it would be over. I learned pretty quickly just to leave and come back when it was over. It didn't take long until she realized that I wasn't going to watch her fits and that made her even madder. It was very exciting and never a dull moment with "the bird"(robin)! We did all of the things that you do in college and had so much fun. We bonded in a way that you can only do when you live with someone. Robin had a boyfriend when I started to college and so did I. Thank goodness that didn't last for either of us. She then met Tim McGrath who later became her husband. Tim was a wonderful guy and very mild mannered. I was so glad to have him in Robin's life because he took some of the load off me of apologizing for her. He also would try to explain her actions and make apologies. It was a hard job---but we both loved her.

I remember their romance and how it blossomed. The first Christmas Tim took Robin home for Christmas with him, she was hooked, for sure. Tim had the family that Robin had always longed for. Tim had a wonderful family life, complete with a brother and two sisters, a "Leave It To Beaver" Mother and a high school coach for a Dad. She loved them all!

While we were in college--class registration was harder than it is today. One semester Robin and Tim needed another class and I talked them into taking a class called "Nature and Needs of The Mentally Retarded". We were all education majors. A part of the class was a field trip to Outwood Residential Home and School for Retarded children. I thought Robin was going to die before we got out of there. She probably will get sick just thinking about it now. The following summer Robin stayed with her grandparents in Eldorado and worked at a facility for mentally challenged children. This is one of those things that I have seen in my life that I know God had a hand in. Robin and Tim's first child was born with Down's Syndrome. Don't get me wrong, Robin never believed that God gave them Jarrod because they were special. I do believe that he gave Robin a path that would make the cross bearable.

This brings me to one of my funniest stories about Robin, as Tim told it to me. They were walking down the street one day when a member of a civic group asked, "Would you give a dollar for a retarded child (he was selling Tootsie Rolls)"?? Tim said R never missed a step as she curtly replied, "No, thank you, I already have one!!!" I am not sure how Tim apologized to the man and I am not sure how many Tootsie Rolls he bought. Typical Robinella-ology.

Robin has two other children a beautiful blonde daughter and handsome blonde son. Megan is married and has two children who Robin adores. She also thinks the sun rises and sets in her bachelor son ,Caleb. Tim and Robin have made their home in Eldorado,IL. They live on a corner in the middle of small town USA in a big yellow house with a pool in the back yard. Robin loves to be in the yard planting flowers and doing yard work. She is a retired teacher and Tim a retired teacher and coach---they are Mr. Tim and Ms. Robin. Robin has lived the life she loved and dreamed of----just enjoying her home and her family in the community that has always been her little corner of heaven. Everyone should be so lucky!!

To those readers who are college friends of Brittany's, I hope your friendships last this long. Robin and I don't spend much time together anymore, but there is one piece of my heart reserved just for her.

Happy Birthday Robin----who would have thought??