I know that what I'm about to say is going to rankle some people, but please bear with me.... Sometimes I wonder about the nature of Chris missing Bob. Does he genuinely miss him, or does he miss Bob taking on the roles that Chris is now responsible for since his death (bills, being Barb's errand boy. etc.)? Maybe it's a combination of the two.
Yeah, I know this sounds cold and awful, but prior to Bob's death there was very little indication that Chris felt anything for him (please correct me if I'm off-base here). Based on some of the "Classic Chris" videos and emails, it can be intuited that Chris had a rather contentious relationship with Bob. The old Christmas video was very telling as well, with Chris and Barb sitting across from Bob (Chris's arm around Barb's shoulder). The body language in that video spoke volumes.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting things because I'm not making allowances for Chris being autistic - I don't know.
Anyway, just throwing this out there. I'm interested in hearing other people's thoughts on this.
After re-reading my post (above) the following occurred to me.
Bob was always the authority figure in Chris's life: he made him do things he didn't like/didn't want to do.
- Bob tried to rein in Chris's spending and teach him to be more financially responsible.
- Bob prodded Chris to get a job (before ultimately giving up, probably right after Chris got fired from Wendy's)
- Bob had Chris doing [gasp!] physical labor (pulling weeds, cutting the grass....)
Barb, being the psycho manipulative bitch that she is, was probably only too glad to have Bob assume the role of authoritarian/disciplinarian in Chris's life, leaving her free to enjoy the role of coddler and chief enabler. To put it simply, Barb wanted to ensure that she was the parent Chris loved best, and, by all accounts, she was successful.
This is just my own personal theory, but it makes sense to me and provides a reasonable explanation of the Chandlers decidedly odd family dynamic.
Edit:
@Lurkingjay made pretty much the same point. I hadn't yet read his post when I posted this.
It is worth noting that Bob left them quite a lot of money, it was only when they pissed it all away on Chris' legal misadventures that they wound up poor. And while Chris and Barb are both dreadful representatives of our species, I don't honestly think they held Bob in so little esteem that they'd just go for the cheap option.
Bob, despite all of his failings, really did his best to try to provide for his family, and I respect him for that.
I don't know what happened with his two other kids, or how he was as a person / family man prior to marrying Barb, but he certainly did right by her and Chris.
If Chris and Barb had simply accepted the plea deal at the beginning of the Michael Snyder legal troubles, they'd still have a nice little nest egg in the bank (unless, of course, Barb burned through it buying more useless Goodwill shit).
I didn't see anything wrong with Bob's internment, it seemed perfectly appropriate. ( I honestly don't think Bob would have wanted anything too elaborate/fancy.)
It could have been worse. At least they didn't put his ashes into an old cookie tin (which would have inevitably ended up being lost somewhere amongst the detritus of the ever growing hoard).