Bob Randolph had a magnetic personality and an adventurous spirit. “There wasn’t anything that wasn’t fun with Bob,” says his wife, Caroline. “Every day was an adventure.”
Bob and Caroline met on a blind date in California, and they were married in Las Vegas just a few months later. “He had the most beautiful blue eyes. He had the best sense of humor.Everyone loved him,” Caroline remembers. “Bob had this way of making others feel important and at ease.
”Bob loved camping, was a voracious reader, and loved finding excitement in everyday life. “On the weekends, we would get in the car, pick a direction, and just drive. We loved stopping at mom and pop restaurants we’d find along the way,” says Caroline.
Bob served in Vietnam and Desert Storm as a Navy corpsman, and he was EMS coordinator for three military bases. “He was a career military man, just like his father. His job was to heal,” said Caroline, who herself was an EMT and a nurse’s aid. Following his military service, Bob was a phlebotomist at the VA hospital.
“Because of Bob, other people had a better quality of life,” explains Caroline. “He continued in the medical field so he could heal.”
Even when Bob passed away, he wasn’t finished making a positive impact on the lives of others. He donated his corneas, and his gift restored sight to a corneal transplant recipient in California.
“I was thrilled to know his cornea went to California since that’s where we met,” says Caroline. “I hope whoever has his cornea is reading or going camping or looking at the ocean.”
Bob’s other eye went to a prestigious ocular research study that is developing cures for blinding eye diseases.
Because they both had a medical background, Caroline says they made the decision to register as organ, eye and tissue donors long ago. “It wasn’t even a question,” she says.
Though Caroline misses her life with Bob, she says she is honored to know a piece of him lives on. “I’m so grateful he came into my life. Bob was the love of my life, and he made me a better person,” she says.
Midsouth Eye Bank, a member of Advancing Sight Network, is sincerely grateful to the donor families who make corneal transplants possible. Through the generous gift of eye donation, restoration of eyesight is possible.