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Bob Browning grew up in a small suburb of Chicago. The oldest in a yours, mine and ours family, Bob left home to take up drumming shortly after high school. A session drummer, he was able to tour with some leading bands in the late 60's and early 70's. Rock and Roll, late nights, shabby rooms and a belief system that did not involve the God he has found today.
Bob is vague in the how or why he had such a major life transformation. The Universe tapped him on the shoulder several times throughout his life and each time he learned a bit more about God, about himself, about life.
When he was living in New York and working as a desk manager at a cheap hotel where transients typically hung out, Browning found himself attending a local Methodist church from time to time where he befriended an elderly woman who became a shut in. Bob had always loved the elderly and he began to visit her. They spoke of books, local events and spiritual matters. The woman flourished and Bob Browning began to read more spiritual books and fewer atheist-inspired texts. Bob flourished.
He is the never-been-married Uncle Bob who sometimes has too many beers or says the embarrassing line. The nieces and nephews could watch and learn as Bob is the nephew who took his elderly Aunt to Europe, a place she had always wanted to see, but could never afford. Bob Browning is the nephew that called another aunt (this one in an assisted living facility) on a regular basis, despite the fact she made no sense on the phone. He is the writer of letters, the one who goes to visit those shut-ins. He shares a joke, a story, an ear, to a segment of the population that few honor or treasure.
Fast forward to today. Bob Browning spends time teaching emotionally and intellectually challenged adults the catechism of the Catholic Church. He took it upon himself some years ago to learn Spanish so he could communicate with some of the people he worked with. This took him to Costa Rica, where he lived for more than a year. His Spanish is now fluent and he has recently applied to work with street kids in Latin American countries. Bob gets no pay for any of the work he does - he volunteers. His long-term intent is to live in Latin America and care for the needy. This is Browning's plan for retirement. No thoughts of travel, golf, leisure clubs. His desire is to follow the gospels he reads daily and clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and visit the home bound.
As a single man, never married, no children, Bob will face a day when he may be unable to care for others, and perhaps there will be a someone like Bob Browning who will decide that he or she will make a difference in the life of a shut-in. Perhaps there will be a young man or woman, who for no reason other than he or she believes it is what their Creator would want, that young person will do what Browning has done for others, let them know they still have value.
Bob Browning - a man of God.
Action Taken: Slow but steady. Look for what is in the highest and do it.
At this time the only way to contact Bob is through anne@womcd.com