Elegy for Robin Melton

This weekend, the world lost one of the truly great people I have known.

Robin Melton grew up in Billings, Missouri just like me.  She was in my brother's class, a year older than me.  She lived about a block from me.  She had a great yard for whiffle ball, and I remember playing there.  I remember her mother had one of those purple martin houses, and there was a particular bird living there which Robin pointed out.  She said he was very rare in this part of Missouri.  He looked to me like any other bird, but she knew he was special.

I wonder if Robin knew how special she was?  I think she did.  But she never held that over anyone.  She was intelligent, athletic, and beautiful.  Many people are at least one of those things.  She had the good fortune to possess all those attributes, and one more.  She was kind.

I was the kid brother tagging along when I went to her house.  Robin was impressive then, even before we all went through adolescence and realized the incredible beauty she possessed.  She played baseball on the boys' baseball team, and excelled at it. As a kid brother, I was used to being rejected by my brother's older cooler friends, but Robin welcomed me as an equal.

Growing up in a small town, there are rarely any of the cliques you will find in larger schools, but common interests do have a tendency to produce groups which spend more time together.  Robin was an athlete and a cheerleader.  She ran with a popular crowd, and she was usually at the center of that crowd.  She still made time for everyone that wanted to talk to her.

Years later, after I had gone through various life-shaping events, I ran into Robin.  She and my wife served on the board for the local Habitat for Humanity together.  My wife was as impressed by her as I have been for most of my  life.  We would see Robin at various events, or even just out shopping, and she always made time to say hello.

I even had the opportunity to interview for a job with Robin once.  I was between jobs at the time.  She knew I had a degree in English.  In the interview, she told me she had some wonderful scientists working for her, but they just couldn't write.  She tried to justify the additional expense of a writing consultant by exploring other areas where I might be able to pitch in.  Unfortunately, I had no back-hoe experience to go with my English degree, so the position didn't materialize.

She did ask me one question in the interview, though, that I have carried with me.  When I told her that I just hadn't found a job that I felt would make me happy and challenge me, she asked me why not.  She appeared to be honestly confused by the concept.

I think she spent her whole life challenging herself and succeeding, always moving forward.  Living any other way was not even a consideration.

In this part of Missouri, in any part of the world, Robin was one of the rare ones.  I have known a few people who have accomplished great things.  But I have never known anyone who did so with such grace, with such kindness, with such beauty.