| 3.20.2003
Robert Reisner, 29; generous and caring
Robert Reisner was the proverbial homebody.
There was nothing the single, 29-year-old school bus driver liked more
than coming home from work to the apartment in Coventry he shared with
his mother. He cooked tacos for dinner, played video games and watched
the New England Patriots and Boston Bruins on TV. He even liked to read
the newspaper aloud to his dog, Aggie.
Well, there was one thing he liked as much. Going to heavy-metal concerts,
especially those big-hair bands of the '80s, the ones that keep reuniting
and rocking year after year. His fondness for these bands of his youth
often took him to The Station.
"He would go by himself. As soon as he heard about a show, he would
go buy a ticket," his younger brother, Ralph, recalled.
Not that Robert wouldn't try to recruit family members to go with him
to the concerts. He asked several of them to see Great White on Feb. 20.
None could go.
A couple of years ago, he treated his brothers and their spouses to tickets
for a farewell KISS concert in Providence.
That was Robert, always doing nice things for others, his family says.
He would go one, two, sometimes three times a day to buy iced coffee at
Dunkin' Donuts, and he would always bring some back for everyone else.
Like the day after a snowstorm early last month, when he came by with
drinks for family members while they were shoveling out driveways.
"He was very caring. He cared for everybody," said his mother,
Judy O'Brien. She is divorced from Robert's father, Robert Reisner, of
New York.
The family has endured some difficult times, O'Brien says. As a single
mother, she had to raise her three boys without much money. Then there
was Robert's health. He suffered from extreme bouts of fatigue and fever.
By the time he was 11, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Sometimes
he had to use a wheelchair.
"I used to have to carry him," O'Brien says.
Robert grew up in Scituate, but stopped going to school in the 11th grade.
He delivered pizza for several different West Bay businesses, including
Domino's, and had been promoted to some managerial positions. His mother
says he always liked driving because it was easier on his bad leg than
jobs that required standing.
A couple of months ago, he began driving school buses for Laidlaw in
East Providence.
"The kids loved him. He worked so hard for it," O'Brien says.
"It's what he really liked."
That and the rock bands pictured in the posters adorning the walls of
their apartment. They hang near the pull-out sofa where he slept.
-- Richard Salit
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