Our friend, Bob Hanafin, died on the 11th of May. He was the most unique and interesting person I have ever met. He was part and - yet not “of” - our community for 8 years. 
We met Bob at a peace encampment in Aiken, SC, protesting nuclear weapons. He had a weekend pass from the VA hospital where he had earlier checked himself in for post traumatic stress disorder (or as George Carlin so aptly called PTSD by its original name, “shell shock”). He came to be a part of the encampment because Bob was antiwar. We ended up getting to know each other as he kept our campfire going in the rain. When he decided the VA had done all they could for him, he moved in with us while we were running 3 shelters in NC.
 |
| JHC Community 1984 |
In 1987 Bob came with Mike and me to Nicaragua when we jointly led a Witness for Peace delegation with a Methodist pastor during the contra war. We went into the war zones. It took a great deal of courage for Bob to come with his PTSD.
At 16 years of age he had joined the military and went to Vietnam before the US admitted they were involved in Vietnam. His job was to balance the helicopters or planes with the dead and wounded. He started buying morphine on the black market to give to the wounded to ease the pain of the trip. On our Nicaraguan trip he was terrified something would happen to us and he would be once again helpless to protect others especially us…but he came none-the-less, understanding the risks more than any of us.
 |
| Kathy, Mike & Bob planning trip to Central America, 1992 |
Bob also came in 1992 on our first trip to Central America to explore where the Jubilee House Community might settle. He represented what we might be able to offer people in the area of appropriate technology. His knowledge of appropriate technology was vast even though he had dropped out of school in the 10th grade.
 |
| Bob in Nicaragua with Henry & others building the solar latrine, circa 1996 |
Bob was one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever known and it came from reading books constantly and on many, many topics. He decided he wanted to know more about appropriate technology and went to see Buckminster Fuller and asked to learn from him…and he did.
 |
| JHC Community Christmas circa 1989 |
Bob was unique…he was the baby of his family born in a ditch during a tornado in Kansas. His family was fairly dysfunctional. He said that his teacher in a one-room school house saved his life. Every Friday she would load all the school children in her wagon and take them to the library. Books opened his world, and he in turn opened the world for others.
He introduced us and our children to so many authors, music, ideas…he insisted that we take a day off each week, something we had not done in the 4 years when we ran shelters. He loved the Waffle House and would spend hours chatting with the staff...the Waffle House was his "office." His birthdays were celebrations in which we were to do something fun for ourselves…he believed in the “hobbit” way of celebrating. As he was dying, he told his “adoptive” son that if people wanted a ceremony after he died then people should get together and tell Bob stories…this is my start.
 |
| Bob at the Waffle House |
One of my fondest memories of Bob was talking to him about a sermon I was preparing on the passage that says “If you do not love your brother (sister) whom you have seen, then how can you say you love God whom you have not seen.”
I lamented to Bob, “What is there to say about this? It says it all…how can I talk about this for 15 minutes?”
 |
| JHC Community 1990 |
Bob said, “Then why don’t you say, ‘if you don’t love your brothers and sister then just get out’ and then you sit down?”
Unlike Bob, I am a bit of a coward…though I did start the 15 minute sermon that way.
But Oh! What a message that would have been! We will miss Bob as will many, many others. -Kathleen
