For 38 years Larry and I have been friends. We were in the same Fire Academy class in 1974, worked together on and off during our careers in the Baltimore City Fire Department, and ended up living near each other when he and his wife built their house near mine.
Larry is the kind of man most men wish they could be. You can trust him with your life or your wife, or anything you own. He is honest, hardworking, courageous, and principled, a true straight arrow, and one of the nicest, most decent guys you could ever hope to meet.
I retired in 2004 after 30 years, but Larry stayed on the job because he loved it. He was a lieutenant in a very busy inner-city engine, getting more than 3500 calls annually. In January 2010 Larry was trapped and seriously burned in a rowhouse fire in Baltimore. (The incident was taped by a bystander, and is on Youtube. Search for "fire flashover backdraft Baltimore".) In the course of rescuing him, tendons and ligaments in his arm were damaged, and needed to be surgically repaired.
When Larry went for his pre-op physical, the chest x-ray showed that he had lung cancer. (He has never smoked in his life, and had absolutely no symptoms of this.) Instead of repairing his arm, surgeons had to remove his right lung...and it's been all downhill since then.
About six weeks or so ago, his doctors found six tumors in Larry's left lung. Two weeks ago, just after his 64th birthday, he had a stroke, and a CAT scan showed tumors in his brain. He was discharged from the hospital last Wednesday, and is now in hospice care at home, with only a couple of weeks left to live.
His family (two of his brothers and his son are BCFD members) and friends are constantly at his side, and he is being kept pain-free. He understands that his time is limited, and he is making the most of it and trying to accept it, but we are all just shaking our heads at how cruel life can be.
Please keep Larry, and his friends and family, in your prayers...thanks.
Larry is the kind of man most men wish they could be. You can trust him with your life or your wife, or anything you own. He is honest, hardworking, courageous, and principled, a true straight arrow, and one of the nicest, most decent guys you could ever hope to meet.
I retired in 2004 after 30 years, but Larry stayed on the job because he loved it. He was a lieutenant in a very busy inner-city engine, getting more than 3500 calls annually. In January 2010 Larry was trapped and seriously burned in a rowhouse fire in Baltimore. (The incident was taped by a bystander, and is on Youtube. Search for "fire flashover backdraft Baltimore".) In the course of rescuing him, tendons and ligaments in his arm were damaged, and needed to be surgically repaired.
When Larry went for his pre-op physical, the chest x-ray showed that he had lung cancer. (He has never smoked in his life, and had absolutely no symptoms of this.) Instead of repairing his arm, surgeons had to remove his right lung...and it's been all downhill since then.
About six weeks or so ago, his doctors found six tumors in Larry's left lung. Two weeks ago, just after his 64th birthday, he had a stroke, and a CAT scan showed tumors in his brain. He was discharged from the hospital last Wednesday, and is now in hospice care at home, with only a couple of weeks left to live.
His family (two of his brothers and his son are BCFD members) and friends are constantly at his side, and he is being kept pain-free. He understands that his time is limited, and he is making the most of it and trying to accept it, but we are all just shaking our heads at how cruel life can be.
Please keep Larry, and his friends and family, in your prayers...thanks.
