Lara always made me and everyone around her feel like a rockstar, no matter what my mood…I rarely deserved it. She was a master of calling me on my own b.s. and yet would selflessly guide me through it and move on. I learned so much from her, I only hope she knew how much she touched my life in so many ways.
Her voice is so wonderfully etched in my mind and will always remain there, It’s hard to accept that she’s not around to give me shit whenever I deserve it (Merridy would agree almost daily). She is the only chick that could spend tons of time with me talking about hip hop trivia and lyrics…we trading music constantly.
Her only downfall was movies…the only thing she had bad taste for. She would drag me and I know many of you to so many B and C action flicks that just sucked, i.e. Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Segal, and even Tomb Raider!…WTF?
The way she told stories and jokes always ended with some hilarious punch line that was inundated with her infectious half laugh/half cackle…that cackle alone would bring me to tears of laughter.
Lara was a walking encyclopedia and could come up with an answer for anything. If she didn’t know it right off hand, she would stop whatever she was doing, research it, and get back with an answer and other great beta to complete the search. She was incredibly brilliant with politics, science, weather, and current events, and when a topic came up that proved it, she was so good at “dumbing it down” for knuckleheads like me, without even a glimpse of arrogance or condescension.
We have countless days over so many years together in the mountains while climbing and skiing, I can’t even begin to list them. What a rad partner on any route short or long, she was always game no matter how easy or difficult. I only hope to carry her amazing spirit and respect for the environment with the same fervor that she so passionately inspired.
Lara, I miss you my dearest friend…your beauty, wit, laughter, and marriage counseling will be so deeply missed.
I love you dearly…
Roger Strong
Lara Kellogg
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- The breadth of her relationship to us is far reaching, her friendships deep and long lasting. Ever in motion, she lived three lives every day, her broad smile and infectious laughter gracing each moment. She was a natural storyteller, in delivery and in experience, for they were her stories, unembellished. To summarize her would be a travesty of embarrassing proportions; even for those of us who were characters in her stories, our remembrance is but a moment of her rich life. If you live only one life each day, these stories will be a window into an existence extraordinary. Yes, if you were close, if you were acquainted, and even if you never had the opportunity, these stories will help all of us in the years to come, our years without Lara.
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