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87-year-old Ralph Larue had one wish: He wanted to go fishing. See how the kindness of strangers made his final wish come true.(Photo: Special to the Democrat)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- At 87, Ralph Larue wasn’t ready to give up on the thrill of reeling in a fish. Larue, who is under<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the in-home care of Covenant Hospice’s Jaci Bartley, is a Navy veteran with a terminal illness. His final wish was to get out on the water one more time.
“I’ve been working with Mr.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Larue since May,” Bartley said. “Every time I talk to him and we sort of reminisce about his life, fishing is always in the story.”
Larue’s fishing trip, on Nov.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>12, was made possible through the Dale O. Knee Veterans Support Fund. Created by former Covenant CEO Dale O. Knee, who's also a Navy veteran, it was put in place to give elderly veterans opportunities they may not have had otherwise.
“It’s fun to grant veterans wishes, so what we did was utilize some of those funds to help with his fishing trip,” said Elizabeth Schlein, regional director of operations for Covenant. “Because he is a veteran and we wanted to honor him.”
(Left to right): Doug Jones, Sherri Werkmeister, Ralph Larue, Capt. Joel Wier and Larue's best friend, Brent.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Special to the Democrat)
Larue, the father of six, lives in Wakulla County with his son and daughter-in-law. When the family was approached about letting Larue take a fishing trip, they were immediately on board.
“I just knew that we had this resource,” Bartley said about the Veterans Support fund. “The barriers that he was experiencing were: he didn’t have a boat to go on, didn’t have people that could attend to his medical needs if necessary or felt comfortable taking him that far out.”
That’s when Blythe Newsome, Covenant’s communications manager, took action and contacted a friend who’s an angler, knowing that he could connect them with a local fishing captain.
Doug Jones holds up a grouper caught by Ralph Larue.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Special to the Democrat)
“When Jaci came to me and said, ‘We’ve got Mr. Larue and he really wants to go out on the water one more time, we have to make this happen,’ In a matter of days, we contacted Joel and Doug and they jumped into setting it up and rearranging their schedule,” Newsome said.
Newsome’s friend, Doug Jones, had enlisted the help of Capt. Joel Wier, who recently entered the charter business.
“Whenever Blythe contacted me to see if we could help this guy out I said ‘absolutely,’” Jones said. “I called Joel to see if he was interested and he was, 'Right away.'”
So the two fishermen loaded up Wier’s 24-foot boat and welcomed on board Larue, his nurse, Sherri Werkmeister, RN, along with Larue’s best friend, Brent.
Jones and Wier described the day’s conditions as “slick, calm, beautiful and sunny.”
“It’s funny, because he really sparked up once he got on the boat. He kind of livened up,” Wier said.
“His health is not great, so our thought was, ‘let’s keep him inshore and do a half day fishing trip.’ But Mr. Larue got on that boat and he kept wanting to go farther and farther,” Newsome said.
When they had reached their farthest point from shore chasing gag grouper, they were 45 miles out.
“We talked about everything. I tried to find a little bit about his history with being in the Navy. He joined the navy when he was 15,” Jones said. “Being able to share the passion that I have for fishing with him was unbelievable.”
Werkmeister said that Larue appeared to be feeling well physically while he was reeling in grouper.
“He mentioned on the way back, he said ‘You know, I didn’t even think about using my oxygen once today,’” Werkmeister said. Larue typically uses oxygen four to five times a day. “He didn’t want to go home, he wanted to stay out and fish.”
Greg Jones and Capt. Joel Wier take Ralph Larue, 87, to catch grouper 45 miles offshore.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Greg Jones
Larue reeled the fish in himself, but Jones and Wier helped him to bring the fish onto the deck. The group even got a sweet reward for their day out on the water.
“They caught them and they had ‘em all cleaned up, then they had a fish fry on Sunday,” Newsome said.
“You think of people at that age as being isolated,” said Bartley, “but he’s got a lot of good friends.”
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