EPILOGUE
During the weeks and months that followed Dana phoned me with regular updates on Bob. Sometimes the news was uplifting - as in when he told me that Bob had begun to film a new series - but sometimes heartbreaking … after five shows he was too weak to carry on.
Towards the end of June 1995 Dana told me that Bob had been moved into a Hospice. I asked him if it would be possible for me to visit him. He replied 'He doesn't want to see you - or rather - he doesn't want you to see him.'
'But why?' I asked.
Dana replied 'Katrina - his weight is down to 85 lbs, he can't eat, drinking is getting more and more difficult and he can barely speak. Even with the drugs he's in constant pain. He won't even let me visit him. He wants us to remember him as he was'. I could hear his voice breaking. He said 'I must go'.
He phoned again on the 4th July. His message was simple: 'Bob's gone'. Even as those words were sinking in he added softly 'It's for the best, Katrina. At the end he couldn't eat, he couldn't drink, he couldn't even speak, and he was in such pain. He's at peace now.'
At that moment I felt my heart break - and it has never truly healed.
My message to him now is as true as it was all those years ago - 'Bob Ross - I love you.'
Katrina Relf - August 2023.