Larry Frame was born to a teenage, unwed mother on 17 August 1954. Shortly after his birth he was taken by an adoption agency. HIs mother was still in high school. My guess is that the decision to put Larry up for adoption was not hers.
I do not know a lot about how Larry grew up. Based on what Larry told me it was an abusive household. At one point he was chasing a vehicle driven by his father as his father tossed Larry’s belongings out the window. Larry lied about his age to join the Army in the early 1970s, to escape his home life. Larry did not talk much about his tour in Vietnam. He told me that he was a door gunner on a huey.
I believe it was some time in 1980 that Larry found details about his mother, our mother. It was no easy task for my mother to tell me that I had a brother. She asked if I would be willing to meet him. I grew up an only child. I did not really wish for siblings but if I was to have a sibling I had always thought it would be cool to have an older brother. I said I was interested in meeting this person.
It was arranged that we would meet in a mall (because it was the 80’s). It was a safe, public place. It was made clear to me that if I changed my mind at any point I could just walk away. I do not think Larry really thought I was going to show up. I did. We met and talked for a while. I do not remember what we talked about. I am sure that part of the discussion was about the fact that my mother had another son but I never really cared about that.
I visited Larry fairly often after that. I worked nights at the Bank of America data processing center in downtown Los Angeles. I would drive out to Larry’s house around 1630 when he was off work. I would have dinner with him and his family before driving into LA for work. We talked a lot but I do not remember what the conversations were about. We were brothers figuring out how to be brothers.
The paths of our lives and the complications that occur in life led to separation. I went to live in Japan for a time, Larry went through a series of trials with his family and we did not see each other for a number of years. Our mother passed away in 1988. Larry came to the funeral. I was glad to see him but for whatever reason we did not restart the relationship.
A lot of years went by until one day I got a phone call.
“Hey man, it’s your brother, Larry.”
I was shocked and glad to hear from him. Larry was not born to an easy life and seldom seemed to catch a break. He had been through a nasty and vicious divorce. His relationship with his own children was rocky at best, mean and vindictive most of the time. In the course of all this he had convinced himself that I was not interested in hearing from him.
Fortunately, a kind, tough, wonderful woman had come into Larry’s life. She heard stories about a brother and tried to convince Larry to get in touch. Probably through the wonders of the internet she found me and my phone number. She convinced Larry to call me, I think it was in 2015. We talked on the phone several times after that first call. Unfortunately before I could get down to see him, Larry suffered a massive stroke. We went down to see him but he was in an induced coma while the medical team worked to resolve the issues that were the result. We met the wonderful woman in his life and tried to be supportive.
Larry survived the stroke. In the following months I tried to get down to see Larry as often as I could. I took my son down to meet him. Larry was a motorhead, he worked as a dealer mechanic for Mazda for a number of years. Larry, my son and I talked about working on some cars together some day when Larry was back on his feet. I was building Six-Shooter at the time and thought it would be cool for all of us to work on it together. Sadly, that never happened.
We moved to Montana making it a lot harder to get down to see Larry. We lost contact again, that was largely or entirely my fault. I should have called and made more of an effort to get down to see him.
Larry Frame suffered another stroke. At some point he contracted COVID and also developed pneumonia. On 19 January 2022 at 0530, my brother Larry Frame died.
Until Valhalla.
I know your life
On earth was troubled
And only you could know the pain
You weren’t afraid to face the devil
You were no stranger to the rainGo rest high on that mountain
Son your work on earth is done
Go to heaven a-shoutin’
Love for the Father and the Son