My fondest memory of Les is from our last reunion in 2012 in Santa Cruz.  I was sitting on the sofa in Tom’s house when Les entered, came directly to me, and told me what a big influence my grandmother had been in his life.

I had forgotten that Les had even met my grandmother, who died in 1994, but I imagine that he met her in February 1974 when we were driving from Santa Cruz to Arkansas in Les’s Mustang.  We were going to pick up some Medjool dates in the Coachella Valley and my grandmother was living in Palm Springs so he must have met her then.

As I remember that 2012 conversation, Les said that my grandmother had told him something to the effect that “health is your only true wealth” and he said that he had always kept that in mind when making major decisions about his life.

I also remember Les speaking very clearly at the reunion about how he wanted his body handled after he died.  He said that he wanted a sky burial, which I had never heard of before.  If you didn’t hear Les’s description and want to know more about it, here is a link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial