RRC Archives

Thank you so much for posting those pictures, Wes. Those are the times that we all want to remember the most. We are all in an incredible amount of pain right now and i am sorry to all who, like myself, feel lost without Alex.

No words on phospor can express the sadness I feel for Tina and
the family. Please find comfort that the loved ones you lost are
together in heaven.

My prayers are for all those remaining that they can absorb the grief
that they feel now and remember all the good times we had together.

Cliff

I hope St. peter gave him his golden piton.

ynot, you got me crying again with that. Very nice thought, though.

I remember meeting Alex at the old Lexington Climb Time, young, full of energy, and climbing strong. He was there with John, it was great to see them bouldering together and having such a good time. That was years ago, but I won't soon forget. My heart goes out to Tina, Jesse, and all of Alex's friends and family.

I have a memory of John that I like. He and I shared an appreciation of young guys in love with climbing. It reminded us of oursleves when we were young and alive with the urgent burning need to climb. We would sit in his office, him not doing his work, me having left the clinic early. We would talk about the weather and the possibility of getting out next week, looking furtively at our schedules to see if there was anything too pressing that could be blown off, and we would go and he would show me Mariba Fork, or some super secret cliff, with the five star finger cracks lining up like sport climbs, just waiting for someone with 5.11 crack skills to come along and have his way with them. "A life time of projects..." he would say.
We knew that the mid week get away probably wasn't going to happen. So we took our pleasure in grinning and remembering when we were young 20 year olds with nothing better to do than go climbing in the Gorge.
We were talking about Alex.
John would always say, "Young guys in love with climbing. Its a fine thing."
I cry the most knowing how this horrible thing happening to Alex would have killed John. It is so sad. Why do bad things happen to good people?

Hugh, there is absolutely no sense to be made of any of this. It's too tragic to even fully comprehend, really.

Thank you for sharing those memories.

It's going to be damn hard to say goodbye to Alex tomorrow...

Friday's service will be a celebration of his life, and I hope it will be the start of what will undoubtedly be a long, arduous healing process. One that I fear will never end.

I just got back from Tina's house. The funeral today was beautiful. It was a memorial service, much like Johnny's memorial service at Torrent, and a celebration of Alex's life. The stories that were shared were funny, sweet, and heart wrenching. I didn't have the courage or the composure to speak today, but want to thank everyone who did, because it meant the world to all of us who were there. Thank you especially to Ryan and Tricia for the wonderful job you did introducing everyone, and opening and closing the service, despite the unbearable weight of your grief. The slide show was intensely bittersweet...

The funeral procession was so long that we couldn't see the end of the line of cars when we looked back. The funeral director said it was the largest they had ever seen. All of Lexington was shut down for Alex's mourners, and anyone who saw the procession was sure to have thought, "someone really important must have died." Well, someone really important did die, and today he was laid to rest. His aunt Carol read the book, "I'll love you forever." Tissues and hugs were shared freely. We all tossed rocks into his grave. His mother comforted us, and we her.

I still can't quite wrap my mind around all of this and figure out how the world just keeps turning, but of course it does. Goodbye, Alex, baby. You touched a lot of lives in your brief twenty years, and you will never be forgotten.

AMen. Thanks for the update. Wish I could have been there....

I miss you, Alex