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With a heavy heart, I have to share that my step dad, Larry Lee, has passed away. It’s been a long hard road since his spinal cord injury 15 years ago.

I met him as a little girl, he’d take my mom out dancing. He’d let me and my friends ride in the back of his truck down to the corner store where he’d buy us country lemonades and a kit kat. My mom followed her heart and we left Oregon and moved to live with him in Louisiana when I was 12. My grandmother loved his accent and thought he hung the moon. He adored her and her Maine accent right back. Larry taught me how to 2 step, to build a great fire, to say yes ma’am and yes sir, to cut grass in an exact diagonal line and more than anything, he wanted me to respect myself and others. Both being stubborn, we butted heads a lot. More than often actually. But I vividly remember each time he said “I’m proud of you” and “You are a good mother”. Before 1998, if you drove by 311 Brookter, you probably had two thoughts, first, “what a beautiful yard” and second, “that Larry Lee needs a belt”. He drove a black Datsun that had way too many miles and leaned to one side. He always asked for boots at Christmas. He loved football, the Golden Girls and he’d watch an occasional Scooby Doo if he thought no one else was around. He couldn’t sit through an episode though, he’d get up and clean something at every commercial. Some of our greatest talks were after his injury, Ty was a toddler and we’d drive to go get PawPaw from therapy in New Orleans a few days a week. Sometimes he wouldn’t say a word the whole drive and other days he’d talk my ear off telling me all kinds of crazy stories. He loved my mom and she loved him. They lived strong in sickness and in health. Between them they have 4 kids, 13 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. While his life held great pain from his injury, it also held a lot of love.

Rest in peace Larry, you made a difference in my life.