In freshman year of high school, Robert Dutchik was my main crush. We called him “Dutchy” then, but the obituary I read a couple days ago referred to him as Bob.
High school was a long time ago, and I don’t remember much about that romance other than the kiss we shared in the alley a block from my home. When school let out, I was fourteen and headed to Europe for the summer. His family moved to Arkansas. By autumn, it was over.
Until 2013.
We didn’t reconnect as a romantic item that year. Rather, we reconnected at the first-ever Cathedral Grade School Reunion which some of us organized fifty-seven years after our graduation. Bob and his wife, Ginny, were the first to arrive and he brought two class photos from eighth grade that stirred memories in all of us. But they were about our adolescence.
I learned a lot more about Bob the adult from his obituary. He and Ginny were married 51 years. He never moved from Arkansas, but hunted all over the states and Scotland. He had one son, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and five siblings. He worked for Capital Welding and Airgas until he retired.
We’re all pushing or pulling eighty at this point, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that one of our classmates passed away. But it did, and I’m glad we got to reconnect a decade ago. Thanks for the memories, Dutchy.
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