I can't remember when I first met Bob. It was so long ago it's just shrouded in the mists of time. I think that I was aged about 4 or 5 and he was a grown up of 12 or 13 years of age. My mom had taken me over to see her sister, my aunt Frances in Morville Street, Ladywood and little did I know back then, the influence and affect that this lively teenager was going to have on not just my life but the lives of all the people he'd eventually touch during his own life.

Our ages made us incompatible as friends, not a lot in common at that time except that we were cousins and family. I grew up with the younger Shales who were closer to my own age and was always at the house heaing the music being played by Bob, Dave, Peter  and Terry who all influenced my tastes in music very early on. It was always a musical family and I loved being there and being around them as I grew up. The humour was always clever and off the wallin the Shale house and I loved that too. We didn't have much back then but we had a lot of music and laughter and Bob was always heard laughing loudly as we listened to the Goon Show on the radio, he'd always get the joke first.

As a young teenager, I asked Bob if I could come out on the road with him when he drove his truck around the country, expecting him say no way. He said yeah why not? I'll pick you up in the morning. I was excited to know that I was going on the road to places unknown with my big cousin Bob. He was a great driver and my Mom was happy to let me go. We did quite a few trips up and down the country and we got to know each other more at that time than any time before. He was great company and I now realise how much I learned from his natural wisdom and his ethics. We talked about loads of things on these trips, and I was always amazed at the things he knew, be it science, music, religion and humour. We had some laughs too and I was even given HGV driving tips. His intelligence inspired me to learn things that I wouldn't have thought about without his input. 

He loved to walk, he'd think nothing of walking for ten miles and walked to Coleshill and back when visiting my Mom in his late 60's. Nothing phased him.

As we both got older we became closer friends than we were before, as well as cousins and we were in each other's lives on a more frequent basis. We spoke on the phone a lot, we met up for a pint or two, at family get togethers and unfortunately at the funerals of our other close relatives that had gone before.

Bob was more than a cousin to me, he was one of my best friends and his his influence on my life alone has been massive. He was a unique man who loved his family and the people he held dear. He in turn was rewarded with the same affection and respect by us all.

I'll miss him as I would a brother and will remember him as a brother, a friend and a reminder of happier days of my youth. Thanks for being you Bob.