Thank you George, you speak for many of us at this sad moment. Life is short,
dont waste your's or others time with pointless BS. Go outside and enjoy the
splendor of this fantastic creation where we are blessed to dwell. Fly up and
catch your dreams before they slip away. Grubbsi
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Veni" <gv...@nckri.org>
To: "texascavers" <texascavers@texascavers.com>
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2018 11:41:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Lee Jay in hospital
Lee Jay and I never caved much together recreationally. We worked together for
many years on countless karst consulting projects until I moved to Carlsbad 12
years ago. Everyone knows he is a talker, and more than once I had to tell him
"Enough talking. We need to get to work." But I found that when I listened to
him, he was amazingly well read and informed on a diverse range of topics. Lee
Jay is a generalist who finds all that's in the world interesting. That is
probably what makes him most valuable on a caving team. He has an eye for
detail because he is fascinated by everything. He would produce great sketches
and notes that were key to making good decisions on how to evaluate and manage
a certain cave or karst feature. This attention to minutia allowed him to
discover one of the tiniest and probably rarest spiders in Texas in a
Williamson County cave.
As a generalist, I could count on him for pretty much whatever was needed on
our team. Once I asked him to bring his rifle for a karst evaluation. He
thought I was joking but I assured him I serious. When we met in the field, we
walked to an abandoned well that I needed to assess with my downhole camera,
except that a rock was jammed in the well bore about 7 m down. Three shots from
his rifle down the well shattered the rock and allowed us to look with the
camera into a cave, which remains unexplored for lack of a humanly accessible
entrance. Check out the attached photo.
I find myself at the moment on the wrong side of the planet to go visit him in
the hospital and tell him how much I appreciate his friendship and comradery.
Perhaps more sad is that like with too many lost friends, we make time for
final goodbyes at bedsides and funerals when it is too late, and not when they
are alive and well to truly appreciate our words. The last time we saw each
other, I knew I needed to visit with him more. It had been too long, but there
was always "tomorrow."
Lee Jay's final lesson to me and many us may be to remind us that sometimes
there are no tomorrows, and to let those you care about know today how you feel.
Thank you LJ,
George
********************
George Veni, PhD
Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)
and
President, International Union of Speleology (UIS)
NCKRI address (primary)
400-1 Cascades Avenue
Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 USA
Office: +575-887-5517
Mobile: +210-863-5919
Fax: +575-887-5523
gv...@nckri.org
www.nckri.org
UIS address
Titov trg 2
Postojna, 6230, Slovenia
www.uis-speleo.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Texascavers <texascavers-boun...@texascavers.com> On Behalf Of Justin Shaw
Sent: Friday, November 23, 2018 18:33
To: CaveTex <texascavers@texascavers.com>
Subject: [Texascavers] Lee Jay in hospital
Lee Jay Graves has suffered a massive stroke with subarachnoid bleeding. His
condition continues to deteriorate and he is not expected to recover.
If you would like to visit him he is at the main St. David’s hospital on 32nd
St. here in Austin. He is on the 5th floor, room 555. Nurses recommend coming
tonight or early tomorrow. There are no restrictions on visiting hours. Though
he seems unresponsive, the sense of hearing is often the last to go.
His family is aware, and his sisters are in route and expected to arrive
tonight or early tomorrow morning.
If you would like details, I’m willing to talk on the phone. 512-593-2283
With Love,
Justin
(apologies for such a heavy post, however when you’ve touched as many lives as
LJ did, there’s too many people who’ll want to be in the loop for me to even
think of everyone, much less directly contact everyone)
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