As many of you have so eloquently noted, Lara truly was an exceptional friend and had an unending passion for life. I count myself blessed for the friendship we shared and for the many ways Lara put a smile on my face. When I moved to Seattle in 1999 to begin graduate school in geography at UW, Tim and Diana introduced me to Lara and Chad and I was instantly struck by their contagious enthusiasm and passion. We ended up seeing a lot of one another that academic year, as Lara and Chad were students in a large physical geography course I was TAing and they both ended up taking many other geography courses. Their friendship meant the world to me, as I was far from home (North Carolina Mountains) and had a very limited circle of friends in Seattle.
Even though I moved back to NC in 2001 to start a home and family with my wife Patience, Lara and Chad stayed in touch and embraced our lifestyle choices. When we received a milk goat for a wedding present, they knew the perfect goat husbandry books to send. “Amazing,” I thought, “how did they know anything about goats?” When our son Holden was born, a pair of Carhartt overalls and a Carhartt jacket magically appeared in the mail, from none other than Lara and Chad. Holden has long since outgrown the overalls, but he just this year grew into the jacket and it makes me smile and think about them every time he wears it.
Although I am deeply saddened that I will no longer be able to “fill up” on Lara’s endless enthusiasm and passion for life, and that my kids will never know this amazing woman, I am grateful for the many ways she made me a better person. And I will always admire how she truly followed her passions and lived life to the fullest.
Baker Perry
Boone, NC
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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