Andy's Story (part 2)

From that summer on, if we ever had a problem, Rich was there if we needed to bend someone's ear or to figure out a solution to any of the many troubling things that a kid growing up had. The most important thing he ever said to me was "That regardless of what you have or want, you always need your faith". In my 15 year old mind I said "Yeah, right… that and about a million bucks".

But regardless of our tentativeness towards his somewhat 'preachyness', Rich always was a stand-up, give you good advice guy. We spent many days sitting in his back yard having a soda, or taking a bunch of us out to a baseball game or just commenting on the news of the day in his living room. In today's world, people might give a guy like Rich some strange looks, but back then, it was something not only out of the ordinary, but was something that took a lot of courage to do. Rich always went out of his way to help people, especially kids, who were either in trouble or who just needed a friend.

A couple of years after we first met him, his health wasn't so good. He wasn't getting around like he used to. He had suffered a few 'small' attacks that had left him weaker, but he always was still in good spirits. He underwent some surgery. But he always seemed to get better. He wasn't afraid of death. His religion and belief in God were his crutches when he himself was low, tired or not able to get around well. At hardly 16, I thought to myself 'this was one tough guy who will probably live forever'.

I was wrong.

One a hot summer day before my 16th birthday, in 1977, Richard Lannen passed away in the same living room that we all had talked so many times. His funeral wasn't very large and notably absent were a lot of the kids that hung out with him and talked. I found it strange and surreal that on that day, that I lost one of the only people that we could talk to openly and many of the kids that he somewhat raised didn't even bother to say goodbye.

Now 25 years later, I find myself a few times a year wandering over to his gravesite to clear off the leaves in the fall or to cut back the grass in the spring. I don't know that many people from back then remember those times. But I still do. Rich was truly a friend and keeping up his marker is the least that I could do to repay him for just being there to listen.
I don't know how many times since then his 'sermons' have rung in my ears, By today's standards, they probably still would be preachy. But I still remember them.

And when I am having a hard time with life, or something has me feeling down, or I just need to share a moment with a friend, I still talk to him and have 'faith' that he is still listening. I think he would have liked how I turned out.

Copyright 2003 True Life Story Contest

© 2003 True Life Story Contest