Cardinal Flyer's Failing Health :-(

[+Poke'Frog]

Oh my God. Words cannot express the sorrow I feel right now.

 

Larry, otherwise known as Cardinal Flyer in the Geocaching world, has been sick for some time now. Many suspected that as a couple of us were helping him take care of his caches. Larry is a dear friend of mine and my heart hurts for him and his family. Fellow geocachers, Larry has taken a turn for the worse and may not be with us much longer. He may be joining the Lord soon, so his daughter asked me to let the geocaching community know this. The family appreciates any positive thoughts, but has requested to please not share their phone numbers and please do not contact them. They need privacy during this time. Thank you.

 

This is Larry's story as written by his daughter (I am only copying and pasting it here.):

My dads name is Larry. Some of you may know him and some of you may not. If you do then you would know that he loves his family and loves to use "sentence enhancers". Ha ha. My dad is very well known in the Geocaching world by the name Team Nimrod. Him, my mom and daughter hides "Caitlyns Caches". Late 2014 we found out he had kidney cancer and had 1 whole kidney removed. February 2015 he fell ill with a cancer called Multiple Myeloma. This cancer is in your bone marrow and you will have it for the rest of your life. It's not cureable but is treatable. About 6 months ago he went into remission but before he could start his maintenance drugs we noticed he was not getting any better. He has been in and out of the hospital several times all while finding 2 blood clots. 2 months ago I had to call 911, he was collapsed on the floor incoherent. The hospital drained 2 quarts of liquid from his abdomen cavity and diagnosed him with Congestive Heart Failure. We didn't find out about this diagnosis until just a couple days ago. The hospital didn't let us know. So now he sits in a rehabilitation center with acute kidney failure for the 3rd time and losing his mind. He doesn't eat much, he doesn't drink much. He doesn't know where he is and doesn't remember who I am. His ammonia levels are in the 90s. His liver is now acting up. He has lost 30 lbs in just a couple months. 70 lbs in the last year. We just found out he has a couple weeks left, if that. He does not want a service so I guess in a way, this is my Eulogy to him. My dad, Larry, I love you.

 

We love you, Larry, and will truly miss your smiling face and loving soul!! <3 My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family! Now and always!! God bless you!!

[Cascade Reviewer]

I've been sad hearing this news. My heart goes out to Larry's family and friends. This must be an extremely hard experience for them to be going through.

 

I never was able to meet Larry in person, but we've had discussions back and forth over the years as we worked on his cache reviews and maintenance. He was always great to work with. The geocaching community will miss him.

[+GSFirefly]

Very sad news. Larry was a caching mentor to me, and by extension to my husband, Robert, aka RLDrosophila. We have watched Caitlyn grow up. We have cached together. We have communicated by phone often - often funny, and often unforgettable. The French have a word for the Larrys of this world: "un original." It means what it does in English, but more so, and is a very high compliment. I will miss having Larry a phone call away, as he said, "Hello, Superflies!" Or alternatively, "Is this the firefly or the fruitfly?" (Robert had mixed feelings about that one, LOL!) Love to the family. We never met his daughter, but we know Sue and Caitlyn well.

Edited March 11, 2016 by GSFirefly

[+Poke'Frog]

Thank you GSFirefly for sharing your stories of Larry. I really would like this topic to gravitate to people sharing fond memories of Larry.

 

I have so many fond memories and stories about Larry that I don't really know where to start. Similiar to GSFirefly, Larry was a mentor to me when I was a newbie. He has always been so welcoming to new people joining our beloved sport! I will always remember the support he gave me on multiple areas of geocaching. When I was frustrated and trying to get perfect coordinates....because nothing seemed close enough, lol....Larry would say something like

"Don't worry so much about it Jen. You can't get perfect coordinates. Do you know why? If you set a GPS on the ground and not touch it for hours, everytime you look at it, the coordinates will be different. Because the Earth is moving at all times. Some geocachers like to pretend their coordinates are always perfect, but they aren't. Don't let it bother you."

That has really stuck with me and I tell newbies that all the time. Because of Team Nimrod's support and friendship, I placed a cache in honor of them on 05/12/2011. (GC2W3VE) If you haven't found it yet, please do so and please share memories in your found it log if you'd like to ~ I'd love to hear them!

 

Larry, Sue, and Caitlyn became dear friends of mine through the years. I have also met their daughter/Caitlyn's Mom a few times...she is just as sweet as the rest of Team Nimrod. Larry and Sue are very private people, and they don't let just anyone in....but they both have very loving souls! I think some people thought Larry was a crotchety old man....and I believe he actually took that as a badge of honor! LOL! But that's not the truth. If you truly knew him, you would know what wonderfully loving people the whole family are! <3

 

So many fond memories....which one do I choose to share here? Probably one of my most favorite memories is the time ...on 06/27/2011...that Larry met us at his caches at 10:30 pm because we were too chicken to go too far into the woods at night. Hahhahaha!

 

It was a warm summer night and I was at home, bored, when two Cardinal Flyer caches came up published. My son was still awake, so I went in and asked him if he wanted to go for an adventure! I had to promise him a snack to go - teenage boys, sheesh! Hahaha!! - but he agreed to accompany his crazy mom on a night time caching adventure. So, it ended up being further up in the boonies a little more than I was thinking........and when we got there, it was pitch black.....path leading into the heavily treed area......crickets everywhere chirping so loudly that we would've never heard someone sneaking up on us..... heheheheheh......yeah, we were WAAAYYYYY too nervous to leave the roadway!!! ROTFL!!!! So, I called Larry and told him that we were there, but too nervous to go that last 30 ft! LOL! I barely had cell service so I lost him, then we got back into the car and headed back down. When we got down into a service area, I called him back - and he told me that he was on his way!!!! He couldn't see us coming all that way and not getting the FTF, so he was going to bring his spotlight and help us out! It was soooo incredibly nice of him!! We turned around, went back, and Cardinal Flyer arrived. His spotlight lit up the area almost like daylight and we quickly grabbed the cache (and the other new one nearby) and headed back down the mountain. Partway down, Larry (who is behind us) starts flashing his lights and honking..... ummmmm ....yeah ....I left my cell phone and GPS on his hood!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!! Ok, do you think the adventure stops there???? Oh no, not quite! We turned on another road and Larry went past us, then we decided not to take that other road and turned around...... and Larry was gone!! LOL!! I called him to tease him about his jeep having wings since he had flown down the road! We had a good chuckle before saying goodbye for the night. Or so we thought it was goodbye for the night. I get back into town and just past Prairie on 4th, here he is...pulled over..... for speeding!!!!! :-0 I felt sooooo horrible!! Our geo-buddy comes out late at night to bale out our scaredy butts and what does he get for it??? Pulled over for speeding!!!! Ok, there was nothing to be done about it so we continued to McDonalds for the snack I had bribed my son with. LOL. As we got to McDonalds, Larry called....and said "No good deed goes unpunished!" ROTFL!!! But luckily, he didn't get a speeding ticket! While the cop was telling him he was speeding, some teenagers were stupid enough to fly by yelling at the cop!! Hahahaha....the cop handed Larry back his ID and took after those idiotic kids. Hehehehehe....good times! This adventure occured at GC2Z2AP which was the inspiration to continue his Fairies Village story into another cache that I placed....Pixie Village. (GC2Z9C4)

 

Another good memory is the FTF I almost ignored. I got a notification that a cache was published around 9:30 pm on 08-14-13...or at least that's when I noticed it. I almost deleted it until I noticed that it was named "Caitlyn's Cache CCLXXVIII "Jen"" (GC4JWVA) Ok, curiousity piqued at seeing my name, I checked it out. Within the first two sentences I knew he was indeed talking about me. LOL! This cache was a cache for me! I knew just what kind of creature I was looking for, but couldn't get out to Farragut until the next moring so I figured I would miss out on FTF. THat was ok with me....I was still going to find it in the morning. The next morning I found the adorable cache container, and lo and behold ~ I was FTF!! What a wonderful surprise!!

 

I have soooo many more wonderful memories and stories to share, but it's already getting too long, so I'll stop now. LOL! Larry is one of a kind and such an awesome person with a gentle, loving soul!! Sue, Caitlyn and Daisy are also simply fabulous people with loving souls and I thank the Lord for all four's friendship! My son and I will miss you terribly Larry!! <3

[+Poke'Frog]

Very sad news. Larry was a caching mentor to me, and by extension to my husband, Robert, aka RLDrosophila. We have watched Caitlyn grow up. We have cached together. We have communicated by phone often - often funny, and often unforgettable. The French have a word for the Larrys of this world: "un original." It means what it does in English, but more so, and is a very high compliment. I will miss having Larry a phone call away, as he said, "Hello, Superflies!" Or alternatively, "Is this the firefly or the fruitfly?" (Robert had mixed feelings about that one, LOL!) Love to the family. We never met his daughter, but we know Sue and Caitlyn well.

 

Thank you so very much for sharing!!

[+Poke'Frog]

I've been sad hearing this news. My heart goes out to Larry's family and friends. This must be an extremely hard experience for them to be going through.

 

I never was able to meet Larry in person, but we've had discussions back and forth over the years as we worked on his cache reviews and maintenance. He was always great to work with. The geocaching community will miss him.

 

Thank you for your kind words!

[+Poke'Frog]

Larry, AKA Cardinal Flyer, went to Heaven last night. I am soooo very sad that he is gone, but relieved is is no longer in pain. Rest in Peace my dear friend.....we will miss you terribly!! <3 <3

 

There will not be a service ~ he didn't want one. I will put together a remembrance event in a month or so when the family is ready for it and will be able to attend. It will not be any good without Larry's family, so I won't be doing it before they are ready.

[+Ice and Wind]

Larry, AKA Cardinal Flyer, went to Heaven last night. I am soooo very sad that he is gone, but relieved is is no longer in pain. Rest in Peace my dear friend.....we will miss you terribly!! <3 <3

That's very sad news. My thoughts and prayers are with Larry's family and friends.

 

I reviewed and clearly remember the first cache he placed back in April of 2008. I couldn't publish it because it was too close to some other caches and I believe it was also the only cache he ever submitted who's name didn't start with "Caitlyn's Cache...". Through the years I published many of his caches and while we didn't always agree, he always argued his point courteously and I enjoyed working with him. He'll be missed.

[+Poke'Frog]

Larry, AKA Cardinal Flyer, went to Heaven last night. I am soooo very sad that he is gone, but relieved is is no longer in pain. Rest in Peace my dear friend.....we will miss you terribly!! <3 <3

That's very sad news. My thoughts and prayers are with Larry's family and friends.

 

I reviewed and clearly remember the first cache he placed back in April of 2008. I couldn't publish it because it was too close to some other caches and I believe it was also the only cache he ever submitted who's name didn't start with "Caitlyn's Cache...". Through the years I published many of his caches and while we didn't always agree, he always argued his point courteously and I enjoyed working with him. He'll be missed.

 

Thank you very much for sharing your kind words! <3