Eugene suffered a huge loss on Oct. 18.
Nobody won when Lucy Irene Lahr, 45, was lost that miserable, rainy night.
The Department of Human Services lost. The Lane Workforce Partnership lost. The United Way of Lane County lost.
No winners. Not that day.
A truck struck Lahr and her partner Susan Dian Wehner as they crossed East 13th Avenue at Hilyard Street. Lahr died. Wehner survived – legs bruised from top to bottom, she was picked up from Sacred Heart Medical Center last Saturday and has since graduated from a walker to crutches.
The couple had been together about 12 years and exchanged vows in 2004.
Now, chairs all over town – at union meetings, city buildings, friends’ living rooms – are eerily vacant. Nobody expects them to be filled by anyone with as much compassion as Lahr had either.
Also, a volleyball team is down a setter who had a pretty sweet serve. And a softball team will need a catcher – a damn good one at that – this spring.
You see, Lahr fought for social and economic justice, fair living wages and support for the weak during labor struggles as an agency representative at client hearings.
But she was just as determined on the softball field and volleyball court, some long-time friends and teammates recalled.
“She really knew how to motivate and pull a team together, which is how she did her life,” said Laura Gerards, who worked with Lahr on the “No on 9” committee, which advocated gay rights.
Jeanine Malito, who served with Lahr as co-chairwoman of the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network, said Lahr played as hard as she worked.
“We could never have a meeting on Tuesday nights because she had softball or volleyball,” said Malito of Lahr, who worked at the DHS for more than 20 years.
Oh, and Lahr was more than just a player. She was a fan, and she had a big mouth. In fact, at Oregon women’s basketball games, she could be flat-out ruthless to referees.
“One of her favorite lines was, ‘Pay attention, zebra boy,’” said a laughing Gerards of Lahr, who served on the board of directors for the Lane Workforce Partnership and United Way of Lane County.
Lahr was a Seahawks fan and also loved Oregon football.
“Joey Harrington was the love of her life,” Gerards said. “She called him her Joey.”
Lahr was on the phone last spring, trying to get friend and former teammate Sharon Olson to play on her volleyball squad.
The two played in women’s volleyball and softball recreational leagues together for a few summers and falls, and also on the racquetball court.
Olson was the reliable pitcher, Lahr the team-motivating catcher.
“She was always clapping and always inspirational,” Olson said. “She was always having a good time, but was still focused on playing.”
Lahr somehow found the time to do it all.
“She might have had a meeting before or after volleyball, but she always made it,” Olson said.
Lahr’s played for the T’s, Echo Spring Dairy and Susan’s Mobile Tool Box, which is also the name of Wehner’s contracting business.
Most of the teams, Gerards had to admit, well – “sucked.”
But if losing was ever made fun, it was during those seasons with Lahr.
And Lahr was a loyal friend. Gerards sings for The Soromundi Lesbian Chorus of Eugene and said Lahr always made a point of coming to her concerts.
“We stunk,” Gerards said. “But Lucy was always there.”
Now, everyone’s trying to make sense of it all. Why Lahr? Why that night, that truck and that driver?
Gerards said Lahr must have finished her work on earth.
Still, Gerards sighs – there’s a void that won’t ever be revived or replaced.
But then she smiles again.
“Lucy was always slipping off her shoes and she’d always have her nails painted,” Gerards remembered, tickled by the thought.
Gerards, Olson, Malito and everyone else who ever knew Lahr seem to have their own special memories of her.
And that assures Gerards that at least Lucy Irene Lahr won’t be forgotten.
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