Recent Death a Painful Reminder

CHRISTOPHER LAURIE'S DEATH A REMINDER
The tragic, untimely and violent death of Christopher Laurie, 33 year-old son of pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie, in an automobile accident last week dredged up some very sad memories for me. Laurie, apparently a young man with a history of driving with excessive speed and violating car pool lane rules, drove into the rear of a Cal Trans sweeper train moving at a reported 15 mph while cleaning debris from the car pool lane. We'll probably never know what caused Laurie to crash into the sweeper train at such a speed that, despite the high technology impact barrier attached to the rear vehicle, destroyed Laurie's Dodge Magnum so completely that it was all but unrecognizable. It's a sad loss of a young man with much potential.

INEXPLICABLE ACCIDENTS
Laurie's accident - which may have been a result of inattentiveness, reminded me of the passing of my best friend, Larry Moore, at the end of 2003. Some will recall that Larry, my best pal for 57 years, crashed on his motorcycle on a lonely desert road as he drove home from Las Vegas. We'll never know why he missed seeing the three signs that preceded his accident - a "25 mph" sign, a "RR Xing" sign and a "Left Turn" sign - but he did. Those of us who knew Larry as a safe - almost to the point of being boring - motorcycle rider all his life, including his fifteen years as an LAPD motor officer, this accident was simply inexplicable. The only explanation we can come up with is that he just wasn't paying attention. Maybe he was reaching for a drink of water or tuning his radio.. we'll never know.

AT THE SIDE OF MY FRIEND
Larry lingered for six weeks in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Las Vegas before finally succumbing. During that time I stayed at his side, helping doctors decide the course of action that, we hoped, would bring him back to us. Finally, when a blood clot in his heart caused cardiac arrest and the doctors couldn't bring him back again, I had to make the decision to have them stop trying. It was the worst moment of the worst six weeks of my life.

LOSS LEAVES HUGE HOLE
As is the case of the death of Christopher Laurie, my friend's passing left a huge hole in the lives of his friends and family. He loved his daughters and grandson and will never know his brand new granddaughter. Larry's legacy included the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay, the premiere relay of it's kind in the world where public safety officers from around the world run from Baker to Las Vegas overnight in a test of fitness, tenacity and teamwork. He and his partner, Chuck Foote, created the event while Larry was the Athletic Director at the Los Angeles Police Academy more than a quarter century ago. Through that event, and others he administered, he formed fast friendships with thousands of people around the world.

DON'T WAIT TO SHARE YOUR LOVE
So today, on the day he would have turned 67 years old, I remind you once again that life is fleeting. Don't waste a second of any day and, above all, tell those you love just how you feel. Don't wait - do it now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMIGO
The photo at the top of this entry is the last photo taken of us together - snapped just a few weeks before he died. Happy Birthday, Larry...

Reprise of "Resolve To Share Your Love"

Today, July 30, 2007, would have been the 66th birthday of Larry Moore, my best friend for 57 years of our lives. Some of you know the story of his passing at the end of 2003 following a horrendous motorcycle accident. On January 18, 2004 the Daily Pilot published the following commentary. In honor of my friend, and to mark the anniversary of his birth, I've reproduced it here for you.

Not a day passes when I don't think of my friend and our lives together. I recall the positive impact he made on the people around him, the love he shared with all of us and the contribution he made to law enforcement around the world. I hope that, when you read this remembrance, you will pause in your busy lives and contemplate your friends and how much they mean to you. More than that, I hope you will find a way to tell each of them how you feel. Life is short - don't wait.

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Resolve To Share Your Love

By Geoff West

January 18, 2004

I hope your 2003 ended with days filled with visions of sugar plums dancing in your head, holiday spirit lifting you and the joy of loved ones surrounding you.

I ended my year standing before an overflow crowd at the alter in an unfamiliar church, delivering a eulogy for a man who had been my best friend since we were 5 years old. I stood before the throng, which included childhood friends and relatives, college friends, friends he had made during more than 30 years on the job, and more recent friends, acquired after retirement, and I tried to condense a lifetime of friendship into the very short time allotted to me on that cool, dreary post-Christmas day.

Before it was my turn to speak, I sat clutching my wife's hand, fighting back tears, as my friend's eldest daughter — from whom he had been estranged for nearly a decade at her request — spoke eloquently and passionately about her father.

She told us a story of how, many years ago, a cruel schoolmate teased her about his profession as a police officer. She had been taunted as a "piglet" — the offspring of a "pig." Her father explained to her that the term "pig" was an acronym for pride, integrity and guts.

She told us example after example of her father's pride, integrity and guts, both as a father and policeman. As I listened to this young woman speak, beaming with pride as she talked about her father, it was clear why she had chosen to follow him into law enforcement as a career.

My thoughts flashed back to the last few weeks of my friend's life — when he hovered near death for 44 days in a distant hospital after suffering horrendous injuries from a motorcycle accident on a lonely desert road early in November. By all rights, he should not have survived the crash, but a series of fortuitous events converged to save his life.

He was discovered almost immediately by a group of foreign tourists — strangers in a strange land — who summoned nearby railroad workers. They, in turn, summoned the rescue workers, stayed at his side until they arrived and insisted that he be helicoptered to the right hospital, where his life was saved.

For a month and a half, I stayed near his bedside and watched the staff at the hospital as they skillfully juggled procedures and medications — trying to find the right combination of treatment that would return my friend to us. It was a roller coaster ride for us all, but especially for my friend, who fought with all his considerable strength to come back.

Very early one morning in the last week of his life, a conscientious nurse turned off his sedation, which had kept him floating in and out of consciousness, to see how he would react to the change. The goal being to prepare him for release to a rehabilitation facility. Coincidentally, or perhaps guided by something else, his former wife and the eldest daughter — who had spontaneously decided to make that long drive across the desert to see him — arrived at precisely that time and ended up having a wonderful visit with him.

Even though he could not speak, he was able to communicate through the firm squeeze of his hand, the nod of his head, crinkling of his brow and tear-filled smiles. In the pre-dawn hours that morning, in the trauma intensive care unit in a hospital in a city far from home, he reconciled with his daughter. Having lost his father much too early, and feeling that he had left some important things unsaid, my friend made it a point to tell his friends how he felt about us. When he grabbed you in a bear hug and said, "I love you, amigo," you knew he meant it.

Later that week, as I stood in the doorway of his hospital room for the last 15 minutes of his life and watched his doctor orchestrate a dozen people trying — unsuccessfully — to bring him back one more time, I knew he left us with nothing unresolved.

I share this very painful, personal story with you today to remind you, as you prepare unattainable New Year's resolutions, that life is much too short. I encourage you to make only one resolution this year: to tell the people you love how you feel. And keep it. Remember my friend and his daughter, and don't wait until it's too late.

I wish a safe and happy new year to you all.

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• GEOFF WEST is a Costa Mesa resident.