Well-lived life remembered
By JEsse Phelps

A bicycle race is in progress when a crash occurs. In a split second, a decision is made to swerve. The tragic and unintended consequence is a head-on collision. Such were the final moments in the life of Garrett Lemire, 21, as he participated in the Tucson Bicycle Classic on March 16.

Lemire's family and friends are left to celebrate the life of a young man they characterize as independent, thoughtful, deep, and compassionate.

"He used to laugh. He was just always happy. He always made people laugh," remembers his sister, Alicia.

"We'd go in for coffee and he'd have 20-minute conversations with the clerk," says Janae Oschain, the love of Lemire's life. "Anywhere he went, people just wanted to talk to him and pick up that vibe."

Lemire loved to smile and he also loved to play music and sports. "He played almost every instrument," his father, Art, remembers.
Garrett would hear a catchy song and seek out an instrument to play it on. "He was actually able to hear it and figure it out," says Lemire's mother, Sally. The two remember frequent occasions where Lemire's steps going upstairs would turn back down when a good song came on until the piano or the guitar could be heard doing a rendition.

As a student at Villanova, Lemire played water polo, basketball and baseball. A promising pitching prospect and shortstop, Lemire opted not to play college ball, instead focusing more on his beloved bike riding.

Ryan Yee and Blake Haggerty were Lemire's best friends. They bonded over mountain bikes in junior high school. "We all ended up getting bikes at the bike shop down the way," says Yee. "It was our home away from home."

The three began by attempting to conquer Foothill Road on their mountain bikes and later, Yee and Lemire began road racing as a form of cross-training. That led to entering in road races almost every weekend over the last couple of years. "Riding up Foothill was like the biggest challenge ever for us. Now we ride four, five, six hours, something like that," says Yee.

Road racing is divided into five categories, with Category One riders being sponsored professionals. Lemire was a Category Two rider on the verge of a sponsorship with KB Homes. "Within the next month or two, he would have been a One," says Yee. "He was on his way. I'd never seen him so focused."

"He took off this semester to devote himself to cycling and go pro. That was his goal," says Oschain.

An international affairs major as a junior at UCLA, Lemire began his collegiate career at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was dedicated vegetarian, political thinker and animal rights advocate.

Haggerty and Yee remember Lemire as the most thoughtful member of their three-man crew. "Garrett was someone I could always rely on to bail me out of trouble," says Haggerty. "He was definitely more of the responsible one. He always was the one to give me a little sense because I definitely lack a lot of that."

But Lemire's sense of duty extended to far more than getting his buddies out of minor scrapes. When his father was waiting for a liver transplant, says Sally, "Garrett just pulled it together."

His father agrees. "They called for transplant three times and it didn't come through. The one time it actually happened, he took over and controlled my position. He took care of the house and he made sure everything was OK. He was only 16," says Art.

"He stayed with me. He wanted to make sure I was OK," Sally continues. "He'd stay with me in LA and then he'd drive up an get to class. He was amazing. He's a compassionate guy."

Art remembers that compassion being applied to anyone, anywhere. "He would stop and talk to anybody. An old man on the street, he'd ask him something and he'd stay there and talk to him. He was sincere about it. He wanted to know what the person was doing, how they felt. It wasn't just out of courtesy," he says.

Lemire also loved to travel, to seek new adventures. As soon as the first of the guys got his license, says Yee, "It was over." The three went to New York, Mexico, Big Bear, Big Sur, among other places.

His independent spirit took Lemire far, even in his youth. One time he and Yee got lost in eighth grade trying to ride their bikes to Santa Barbara. "We got a call from the ranger station. Ranger Deke, on his horseback, found these two guys waiting at this little shack," says Art.

Having left early in the morning, the boys weren't discovered until 6 p.m. out in the hills. It was one of many adventures the friends undertook together, which built in them the confidence to follow their passion, to live life on their own terms.

But "They weren't allowed to go out without a cell phone again," says Sally.

She says it's a consolation that her son passed away while enjoying his passion. "He died doing what he loved, right up until the very end," she says.

Lemire will be remembered on Saturday, starting with a memorial bike ride with friends and members of the KB Homes team, which Lemire was soon to join. The ride will start at the family home on Foothill Road and conclude at Meditation Mount, where family and friends will celebrate a life well-lived at 1 p.m.

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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