Thursday, July 30, 2015

Happy Birthday, Larry... Mi Amigo


MARKING MY FRIEND'S BIRTHDAY
Those of you who are long-time readers of this blog know that each year on this date know that I mark this day, July 30th, with a remembrance of my dear friend, Larry Moore - my best friend for 57 years until a tragic accident took him from us eleven and half years ago.
I'VE WRITTEN BEFORE
I've written many, many times about him and our friendship and love for each other.  You can read other entries HERE and HERE... and there are more.  Type his name in the search block at the upper left corner of this page to find more entries on my friend.
PAINFUL MEMORIES
Suffice it to say that I still miss my pal after all these years.  I can still recall spending six weeks at his bedside in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital in Las Vegas, trying to help keep him with us after he crashed his motorcycle on a desolate road on his way home from that city.

FAMILY...
I recall the many trips his former wife and two daughters made across the desert to visit my friend, to hold his hand and talk to him although he couldn't respond.  He was proud of them both.  His eldest daughter, Kara, became a detective with the LAPD.
VISITING THE SITE
I can still recall as though it was yesterday driving out to that site and seeing the skid marks caused when my friend tried to navigate the 90 degree turn he didn't see coming.  I can still recall the memorial my wife and I built alongside that road in his honor so many years ago.

THANKING THOSE WHO RESPONDED
I can still recall returning to that site and, quite by accident, coming across the railroad work crew that a few weeks earlier had rushed to his aid and the training and wisdom to call the Life Flight helicopter to whisk him to the hospital, and having the chance to personally thank those men for their quick action that gave us a fighting chance to save Larry's life.
THE FRIENDS...
And, I can still remember the steady stream of friends who traveled across the desert to see their friend, even though for almost all that time he was not conscious and couldn't acknowledge them.  Because of his 31-year career with the Los Angeles Police Department and in his role as Athletic Director of the Police Academy for the last half of it, he knew thousands of cops from all over the world.  The emails I sent out each night - which began as short notes to a half-dozen friends and ended up being distributed to more than 1,000 people each evening near the end - struck a chord with those folks from as far away as Antarctica.  He was a man much admired and much loved.
SHARING ANOTHER BIRTHDAY
Today my friend would have been 74 years old.  He briefly knew his grandson - a spitting image of his grandfather and who just graduated from high school - and never knew his granddaughter.  He left us all much too early and is missed every day.  Happy Birthday, Amigo.... I miss you still...

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