papal
October 6, 1943 - July 2, 2007
Papal Larry was the most amazing man. There are so many things I can say about him. His heart was filled with kindness and love. He was full of life, always the one that was making us all laugh. He would do anything that needed to be done to help someone. He would always check my car before I went on trips to make sure I was going to be safe. He'd call me his little Meggie and say "Aww, I love my little Meggie." He would always tell me I was driving too fast. He'd pull onions straight out of the garden and start eating them. I always knew when he was near because I could hear his big dodge truck coming. He loved animals; he helped me with the raccoons, he loved his dog ol' Romeo, he loved taking care of the pigs, and he was excited about finishing the fence so we could get cows. My dad and him did everything together. He just started his vacation and was leaving to go Summersville this weekend. He kept saying the days he was just hanging out at the campground that he was going to clean up his boat.
Yesterday, My brother and I were on our way to go work when we heard on the firehouse scanner in my dad's truck that there was a bulldozer accident behind my uncle's house. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach because I knew papal was on the bulldozer. My brother turned the truck around and went 90 mph and ran the siren the entire way back home. I tried calling everyone when I had signal and couldn't get ahold of anyone. Then my cousin called me crying and didn't know what was going on either. We pulled into the driveway and everyone, all the firefighters, emts, and neighbors, were just looking at us and they were all crying. I knew, I just knew that it was bad. Kim was hugging me and I finally found my mom and dad. My dad was sitting propped up against the truck crying and Gump came up, grabbed me, and hugged me. I sat down side my dad and started hugging him. Then my mom told me that papal was going up this little incline on the bulldozer and it lost balance and flipped over on top of him. I was devastated.
My family is very close and we're close with everyone in our community. My papal was the man that everyone came to. He was like a dad and grandpa to everyone at the firehouse where he was chief and everyone that he worked with at the plant. Everyone packed my grandma's house tonight, and we all hugged, cried, and told stories about the crazy things that my papal did. I love him and I'm gonna miss him.