Congratulations To My Grandson
        Rocket On My Baby.

Betty Van Volkenburg,  Publisher
November 2004

As my grandson Robert, alias Bobby to me, prepares to leave for his first year at the University of Buffalo with scholarships in Journalism and Music, it is a bittersweet time for me, as it probably is for most families as they have seen their High School kids blossom into University adults.

I was there in the delivery room with my daughter Candy, when he was born, and at all the other major events in his life, including this one as he is delivered into the academic world.

Reminiscing about these past 18 years, there were many joyful memories, in fact God has blessed us so much I can’t recall memories of him that weren’t joyful. From the delivery room where the nurse bundled him into a little ball that looked like a bowling ball with a head, to the tall handsome youth who walked across the stage in radiant blue robe and cap for his High School Graduation from Webster Schroeder High School, he has blessed my family, church and friends with his presence.

For the first few years of life, he and my daughter lived in Rochester, not far from my home in Webster so I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of first hand memories with him.

One of the lasting memories I have is of him as a little baby when I would hold him on my knees, facing me, and singing ‘Rock-A-Bye Baby’ to him. He was only a few months old, and not speaking yet, but he would move his mouth, like a little bird, imitating me as I sang to him. Later when he was walking and talking, he would come and climb on my knee and beg me to sing ‘Rocket My Baby’.

"What do you mean ‘Rocket My Baby’", I said.

He answered "You know gramma," as he sang "‘Rocket my baby, on a tree top’"  I guess my diction wasn’t too good, but from then on I knew what he wanted when he requested ‘Rocket My Baby’.

When he was still a baby, Candy and he moved back home with me in Webster. I was still in the corporate 9-5 world at that time and when I would get home at night I was too stressed out to get into my home duties so I would prepare a plate of raw veggies and dip to munch on while I read the newspaper and tried to come down to a normal pace. Bobby watched me as I dipped raw cauliflower or broccoli in the dip and nibbled on it. Then, he decided to try it. What a face he made as he crunched a piece of cauliflower, but he kept trying different pieces and ate them, albeit with a grimace and a shrug of his little shoulders. So this became a nightly ritual, to share some veggies and dip with my grandson who was barely done with Baby food. The look on his face, and the shaking of his shoulders as he ate was priceless, but he finished every bite he took.

It was a treat to come home in the evenings and hear his tales of his escapades that day. He seemed to enjoy talking with me too, because one day he came to me and said "Gramma, I want to be talking with you when I am 100 years old".  Like any good parent or grandparent you always want to make your children or grandchildren happy so I promised I would do my best to make that wish come true.

One day as I was driving him to kindergarten at his school next to Good Shepherd church, he looked out the car window and said "Gramma, I want to go to that church and meet the Shepherd". It surprised me as I didn’t think he could read the sign and I didn’t know if someone had told him the name of the church. But I told him he would certainly meet the Good Shepherd, Father Lance, because that’s where I attended church and where he had been baptized as a baby.

He’s been actively involved in Good Shepherd ever since, from Sunday School, to Youth Group, to Acolyte, to Eucharist minister, and children’s choirs – from junior choirs up to the Youth Choir. His involvement in Music at Good Shepherd is surely what helped get him his scholarship in Music at University of Buffalo. Our church is blessed with a wonderful Music Director, Karen Pfluger, who has developed several choirs, including a chime choir, and produces the annual Boar’s Head Feast and musical extravaganza featuring many volunteers from our congregation.

While I sometimes chide him for not having perfect attendance at Sunday Eucharist, he has a strong faith and is proud to share it with others, and talk about it. One of the stressful times we’ve been through in his life, was when he was diagnosed with a serious heart problem and needed heart surgery. Our home phone and church phone was ringing off the hook with concern and prayers from everyone. The surgery was more complicated than the surgeon had anticipated but Bobby came through with flying banners and came out of recovery quickly. He told us later that in the operating room he felt like everyone was there in the operating room with him helping him and the surgeon.

In his Senior Project he published a newspaper "Senior Review" where he cited his faith as an important part of his life – "for me, church isn’t just an hour a week. With youth group meetings, choir practices, lay ministry, and the perpetual setup and breakdown of special events, being at church is a staple of my schedule; reasons for not being in church run few and far between"   (but I can bet his absence at church was related to one of his part time jobs).

He describes the newspaper as a professional portfolio of his work as a student journalist, and from my viewpoint as a magazine publisher, I would definitely agree on its professionalism, even to the sponsors and advertising. He was able to obtain advertising that totally covered the costs of production, and ended with a profit of $4.

Bobby is a very enterprising young man, and has shown that trait since he was a little boy. I remember looking out my front window one day, when he was about 6 or 7, and seeing him running from house to house and dropping something on the neighbors’ front steps. When he came back I asked him what he was doing and he said "I’m delivering papers, and tomorrow I am going back and collect money from them". He had taken some of our old newspapers and left them on their steps, thinking he could go back and collect, like he saw the paper delivery boys doing. I hated delivering the sad news to him that he couldn’t do that, but I did compliment him on trying anyway.

As I explained to our neighbor next door what had happened, she just laughed and said it wasn’t the first time he had been so enterprising. Apparently one day he had gone to her and tried to sell her some coupons from the Direct mail packages we get.

I never knew what he was going to come up with next. When I left Xerox in 1993 to start my own home based business, it gave me a chance to spend even more time with him. It was a treat every day to see him get off the school bus and come running across the lawn, yelling "Gramma, your favourite grandson is home!"

My business was publishing a healthy resource magazine for singles, called Singles, The Magazine for Today’s Single. My daughter Candy was one of the people who worked for me, and formatted the magazine in publishing software to take to the printer. Of course, Bobby was a quick student too and we let him create his own pages to practice on. He was present, or nearby, at meetings where we discussed with our Editors or writers what the future issues would cover, or reviewing printers quotes, and all that went into putting together a print publication.

I had always wanted to be a writer when I was growing up but it was not considered a very practical career, so I felt fulfilled that now I was not just writing, but publishing a magazine. Little did I know that Bobby would really fulfill my dreams, by wanting to be a journalist, and earning a scholarship in Journalism.

Besides church and school achievements, Bobby also distinguished himself in Boy Scouts, serving as Quartermaster of his troop. His mother was also very active with the group when he was growing up, in fact she made a point of purchasing a pickup truck instead of a sedan, to accommodate all of their paraphernalia for camping and outings.  While she was working at Frontier Field, our baseball stadium, she came up with a volunteer program where non-profit organizations can volunteer to work in the concessions and earn income for their organizations. Naturally our church was one of the first to try this out and they still continue.  Everybody wins - the stadium caterers get dedicated workers, and the church gets a good donation, and the workers have a fun day.  So is it any wonder Bobby has developed a streak of creative involvement!

He was working on becoming an Eagle Scout until he started two part-time jobs. One was behind the counter at Zamar’s Coffee Café, and the other was as an intern at the Webster Post. Both jobs kept him in the mainstream with people where he loves to be, and is loved in return.  

Besides Bobby’s musical and writing talents, our Rector at Good Shepherd, Father Lance has always said that Bobby "has the calling" and he would not be at all surprised to see him in a Ministry in some capacity. Bobby jokes about our expectations saying "Yes, I will be the first ordained President of the United States who also wins the Nobel Peace Prize and the Pulitzer Award".

Bobby has always seemed special to me, not just because he’s my grandson, but because he has an aura of God’s blessing around him – we may not know where his decisions will eventually take him, but whatever it is - it will be good for all, not just for himself.

May God’s blessing stay with him forever.

ROCKET ON MY BABY – You are going farther and higher than anyone I know.