My Memories of Robert Cooke

There are some people you meet and right off the bat you know your life has added a new person to your life's journey, and my buddy Robert was one of them. I do not believe our paths would have ever crossed if his daughter, Rachel Cooke had not become a missing person.

On January 10, 2002 Rachel was jogging and vanished while home visiting her parents in Georgetown, Texas and while on winter break from school. Her father Robert took her story across the country from that moment on, never giving up even until his last day here on earth with us. Robert spent countless hours each day devoting his time and empathy to families of the missing and organizations that helped the cause. He never wavered in his hope to find his beautiful 19 year old little girl.

Now, the last written story on Robert is his obituary that begins,  Robert William Cooke, 59, of Georgetown, Texas, passed away on November 5, 2014, in Austin, Texas.

In the weeks before his death we had conversations, mostly about Rachel (reminding me not to stop looking for her) and informing me that he might not be at the conference this year coming, but he kept saying he was getting better and by all sounds of his voice he was very convincing. You see Robert was and remains the only one person that attended every single CUE conference, he loved it and was a behind the scene important part of it. 

For me, each year he would hang back after the conference ended to meet with me, coach me and tell me all I did great and all that could use improvement, I needed that and I will miss our time together. I respected him and his advice and opinions. But that was not all. Robert loved to sing and dance! Robert, Lisa and I became the trio that "on Friday night" of the conference was a large part of the entertainment and was well known for our songs we always sang together.

My memories of him and  the laughter we shared (counted up it would be years)  will forever make me smile when I think of Robert, and sometimes make me cry. He was a silent rock for me, one I could call on whenever need be and one that held me up when I was weaken by life. I never lost interest in hearing his stories and found great comfort in his passion to heal others even when his life hid a suffering pain and desire of the unknown to where his daughter was; he was a force to be taking seriously on so many levels.

As we approach my first conference (2015) without my friend I miss him even more, it will be odd to know there will be no afterwards meeting, no dance or song, even more just knowing he was not the first registration that came in this year as he always was....I was reminded of my, our, the worlds loss.

So many things I could share about Robert and the years we had, but the most important one I think would be is "the never giving up HOPE", in that message we both supported. I recall a time when he explained, "We have to be that action of HOPE, you cannot just say it and not believe, if you believe than you have to be an example".  I know that I will continue to be just that. "Hope is a gentle word, one that carries a great expectation, but one that needs no explanation" - Monica Caison

In closing I present this song for Robert, enough said....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWTypH5FbwY

LYMI Monica