Bobb Watkins said ‘hi’ to me in my dream. He was my swim coach, and he passed just after Christmas last year. I thought about him pretty constantly for a month and a half after I heard the news, then my life and 3 kids got in the way and I pushed his memory back.
You may want to stop reading this post now, since I’m about to launch into a description of my dream. It will most definitely sound very boring because I, like so many others, can not do their dreams justice by retelling them. They always seem better in one’s head, but here goes…
My dream: I went to the LACS pool to swim laps and pay respects to Bobb. I remember taking a break at the deep end to look at Bobb’s office, squinting to try to see any pictures on his wall. Unwilling to get out and snoop around, I continued with my laps. I pushed through each lap, awkward and completely out of breath, and unable to do flip turns at all (I’d get stuck halfway around and get water up my nose, just like when I was first learning how to do one). It wasn’t a graceful session, I’m sure Bobb would not be proud.
In the middle of a lap in lane 1, I saw a red ten speed bike parked on the deck, pointed toward my lane. I stopped immediately, thinking someone else was in the pool area. Treading water I turned myself in a circle and found no one. As I came around to face the shallow end, I saw Bobb outside the wall of windows.
Since he was outside, I could only see his head from where I was treading water. I watched him talking to me, his face was glowing from the light of the golden sunset. I couldn’t hear a word he was saying, but it seemed very important, until the volume in my dream turned up for just a moment, and I heard Bobb say ‘…and you know, I said if you don’t like my house, then you don’t have to look at it’. Then everything went on mute again, Bobb kept looking at me, chatting away, he smiled and his head disappeared into bright light.
I realized Bobb had just said ‘hi’ to me, and I woke myself up from my dream.
That’s it. I woke up, blew my nose, and fell back asleep. But for a moment I remembered Bobb, and it made me happy that he remembered me.