Friday, May 21, 2010

Godspeed Larry Miller

A good friend of mine, Larry Miller of Seattle, Washington died yesterday. He was 59 years old. Larry was one of the smartest men that I know. MBA from Cornell, author of two books and speaker of many languages including Vietnamese. Larry served as a spook in the Navy in Vietnam. He did things that he would never talk about and he received more than one dose of Agent Orange while in supposed enemy held territory. Larry was just another delayed casualty of the Vietnam War. He never fully recovered from Vietnam. He had dreams and sweats and tremors. Ultimately he was granted a disability for the damage caused by Agent Orange.

Larry was a troubled soul. He eventually gave up and found his relief in a bottle of Vodka. He has been slowly committing suicide for years. He needed the bottle to face the world. The dreams and the tremors. He could never overcome the demons in his mind. His childhood, his war, his Blackfoot Indian heritage all seemed to push him to his death. He was smart, engaging, funny and troubled. I just hope that his next journey will be more peaceful than his last. Godspeed Mr. Miller. We will miss you and we wish you peace.

Mr. Flannery

3 comments:

red.neck chic said...

Oh Peter, I'm sorry for your loss.

robelyn

SecondhandKris said...

That was a beautiful tribute Peter. Tho we only spent one evening with him, he was a very memorable man. Our best to you and Leigh.

Jaybird said...

My sympathy as well....
My DH has a sign hanging in his office that says it all:
"When a man dies, a library burns".