LeanOnUs

Larry Allan Lanier was a musician, a nurse, a captain in the Air Force, and a father. As fate would have it, he was MY father, so I think I’m qualified to state that he was a most excellent father at that. Many mannerisms and life lessons I learned from him, especially as it pertains to maintaining a sense of humor and being rational during life’s challenges. He was a tough dude, but not insensitive. I think we maybe told each other twice in our lives that we loved each other; we never needed to say the words because it was always understood.

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He used humor to get us ALL through his battle with cancer (a golf ball-sized brain tumor), a battle he lost Nov 30, 2007, the same day Evel Knievel died. I remember the horrified faces the family made when he keeled over one night watching a football game from the couch (just weeks before his passing), waiting until they all jumped out of their seats before sitting up and laughing at them all for falling for his prank. I remember when picking out his headstone at the monument shop, how he asked the sweet lady working there if he could get a military discount; the lady working there was taken aback as she had never been asked that question before. Just as she was about to go get her boss, he told the poor lady he was just joking and we all had a good laugh. Many jokes were cracked while we picked out his headstone that day, and the lady from the monument shop has been a family friend ever since; she still sends Christmas cards to my kids and I. That was the sort of impression my dad had on people, I saw this time and again throughout our years together.