ANNA MONICA / L’Observateur / June 27, 2000

It was such a surprise when I read of the death of Chris Evridge. It hadhappened over the weekend, and I didn’t know about it until reading L’Observateur the following Wednesday. You could say “shocked” was morelike it.

All who knew Chris considered him a friend and an all-around nice guy. Hewas accessible always when I would call him at his workplace to discuss the MS ride and was a pleasure to talk to after the ride on Sunday afternoon. Just last October he was most cooperative when I asked him tocome take a picture with the riders from the River Parishes. He wasdependable and extremely well liked.

Not knowing anyone in Chris’ family, this news made me want to call and talk to somebody to express my deep regrets. So I called Charlie Watkinswhose picture I took with Chris at the MS Tour for Cure ride last October.

I also called Chris’ good friend, Za Maurin, at the sheriff’s office. It justmade me feel better to be able to express my sorrow to someone who knew him well. Za was able to give me some details and tell me about thememorial service to be held in Chris’ memory the following week.

The chapel at Millet-Guidry Funeral Home was filled to capacity at the service. Since Chris wasn’t originally from this area and services wereheld out of state it was very considerate of his family and the employees of Time Warner Cablevision to plan this service so the rest of us could be together to express our sympathy.

I wasn’t aware Chris didn’t have family here, but he did have a large family in his fellow runners and cyclists and a number of them were at the service, including fellow runners Pamela Danner and Harriet Hanshaw of New Orleans. I got to speak with Jeff Gohd, the friend running withChris when he expired. He will really miss him. In a eulogy Za Maurinspoke of his experiences with Chris and said that “the running process made you communicate.” He added that Chris and the company he headed,Time Warner Cablevision in LaPlace, supported different community projects. “He was a pleasure to work with.” “When coping with loss,” theathletic Za said, “sometimes exercise is the best medicine.” Za was ableto make us smile by relating several humorous incidents involving Chris.

Tom Smith said Chris “was a very kind person and always got along with his fellow man. He was a gentleman and an honor to his family. Apparentlyhe touched everybody, and that is why we are feeling this sad.”When Chris ran his first marathon, Tom was one of the people that ran it with him. An employee of Chris’, whose name I didn’t get, said they couldalways go to him when they had a problem.

Local runners, cyclists, friends, Time Warner Cable employees and the community will definitely continue to experience the big, empty gap left by the passing of Chris Evridge. He was that kind of person.Fannie Fulton, a longtime and well-known resident of the parish, has also left us. He was a fine gentleman, and although I haven’t seen him in anumber of years I fondly remember the friendship we shared years ago.

Always a thoughtful, kind man, highly thought of in the community as a person and as an excellent, professional appraiser, in which capacity he was well known and respected, he, too, leaves an empty space in our minds and hearts.

Goodbyes are hard, especially when they are untimely or to people who have helped shape our lives. Yet, it’s still, most reluctantly, goodbye.

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