My Newbie is Showing...Part 3

50IFBC: Tribute to Larry

Most people will not get how this week's picture prompted this story. All I know is that it did.

Every so often in my life, I come across someone who defies the odds and inspires me to be better than I see myself as being. For me, that person is my friend Larry.
As we were chatting today, he said something about his best friend in college. I thought that was an odd turn of phrase. Upon further inquiry, he told me that his friend died. A normal person might have been able to tell that he really did not want to talk about Barry, but I wanted to know about this man who so influenced Larry. I asked what age he was when he died. 21. Barry died at 21. He had just gotten his dream job with a national radio station and was so excited he rear-ended something and he died. When the news got back to his co-workers, there were no words. Not even tears at first. Just stunned silence. Larry managed to find a quiet place in a hallway to just sit against the wall and rock back and forth. No one could console him, not even his father. Even all these years later, Larry still paces and struggles to hold back the tears when he talks about Barry.
I told him that it amazed me that he could be so kind and caring to other people after something like that, and especially when something similar happened to him. He was a little surprised that I knew about the time he almost lost his life, but I am glad he took the time to fill in the blanks. It solidifies my belief in that spirit that each of us has deep down inside that makes us either summon every last fiber of our being to win, or to withdraw and give up.
Larry is the testament to the power of fighting for your life, because he did. When he was in his mid-20’s, his kind heart allowed him to give a ride to 3 men he did not know. At a moment unexpected, the one immediately behind the driver’s seat, jerked Larry out of his seat and into the back. (This was at a time when seat belts were not mandatory and most cars probably did not even have them installed as a feature.) After pummeling his face with a six pack of beer bottles, fists and every other thing they could find, he pretended to be unconscious. The 3 believed him to be dead and drove to a remote location. He could hear them talking about how they thought he was probably dead because no one could survive something like that. At some point, he realized that the window in the back was open and that they were going to be parking soon. He moved his feet into a secure spot and as fast as he could, pushed off the side door, gouged his fingers in the guy’s eyes and driving that guy’s head into the back window, and catapulted out the side window. What they did not know is that Larry was a linebacker. He ran as if hell was on fire. Two of the perps gave chase, but Larry was running to save his life, and they were only running to try to catch him. When your life does depend on it, you can do amazing things, and Larry’s amazing was running 3 miles at full speed. When he got to a main road, he managed to flag down a motorist who told him there was a cop one block that way. Larry ran an extra block that way to get to a police officer and then get help. He spent a long time in the hospital as a result of that attempted murder. They did catch the perps and they all spent some jail time.
The thing that is amazing about all of this is that after all of that, Larry is still the most compassionate man I know. He still gives people the benefit of the doubt. And he still trusts most people. He can read most people better than most. He never beats himself up for offering to help those three perps. He forgave them. How? I don’t know. That ability to forgive such a life-threatening action is something that I could benefit from.
From Larry, I know that everyone can rise above their circumstances. He practices a very high degree of Christian behavior and that’s not even his faith. That’s quite amazing. He’s amazing.
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to tell you about my friend.