Sean C. Morgan
To honor his memory, Nick Larsen’s family wore T-shirts at his funeral on Aug. 12.
Stenciled across the shirts were the words, “Nick Says, Git ‘R’ Done,” spelled “git” or “get” from shirt to shirt.
That was his favorite thing to say, and he had already taught his little cousin Alyssa to say it. He was just working on her brother, Gavin.
“Nick wasn’t perfect, so he wouldn’t want it perfect,” said his mother, Patty Calvery of Springfield.
Nick, a passenger, was killed in a single-car wreck on Highway 228 near Valley View Drive on Aug. 8.
“The biggest word I can even think of is ‘awesome’ in capital letters,” Calvery said of her son. He got into trouble, but he always thought about everybody else. “He just wanted to be here with his family, with Courtney, his girlfriend. He just wanted to be a role model for his nieces and nephews and his brother.”
Nick was working on his GED and license, Calvery said. He lived with his uncle Jason Larsen after she moved to Springfield.
“He was interested in anything with wheels,” said his aunt, Aubrie Larsen.
He worked at Bob Grissom Auto Body, said his uncle Jason Larsen of Sweet Home.
“He had a passion for cars that started practically the day he was born,” said Rhea Wells, an aunt. She said that at age 2 or 3, Nick wanted to help her father work on cars.
“Nick had his little pedal car up on jacks, and Nick was under it doing his thing.? Everywhere my dad (grandfather Carlos Larsen) would go, Nick was sure to follow.”
“He had his own truck, and he loved driving it in the back yard at his uncle Jason’s,” Calvery said.
Nick sanded and repainted his bicycle many times. Grisson repainted it for him recently, in blue with platinum added to the clearcoat to make it sparkle and almost change colors in different light. Nick was supposed to pick it up the night of the accident, but he never saw the finished bike.
His family put the bicycle in his casket, along with a bag of Doritos and some Pepsi, two of his favorite things.
When it came to food, it didn’t stop with Doritos and Pepsi, Calvery said. “He was the McDonald’s king.”
He also enjoyed the outdoors, camping and fishing. He often fished with his best friend, Seth Goodwin. and enjoyed spending time at the lake with friends.
He loved rap music ? anything with heavy bass, Calvery said. His girlfriend, Courtney Allen, picked out P. Diddy’s “Missing You,” an arrangement of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” with new lyrics, to close the funeral service.
Nick had a country side too, and that’s why she picked out Tracy Byrd’s “I’m From the Country.”
That particular song was his favorite, Calvery said. She would have the song playing in her car, and Nick would be in the back seat with the tune cranked up as far as it would go, singing with it as loud as he could.
Grandmother Gloria Larsen said that Nick “had to fight for everything in his life.”
Before school age, he accidentally drank gasoline, had his head slammed into a door and fell out of a moving vehicle, his cousin Sha-Marie Wall said, but he made lemonade out of lemons all of his life.
“He didn’t get bitter,” Gloria Larsen said. He just “made the best of it.”
“He was never really handed anything,” Jason Larsen said. “He worked for it.”
He had gotten into trouble in the past, but he was turning things around, Aubrie Larsen said.
He liked to make people laugh, Gloria Larsen said.
“He didn’t like for people to be sad,” Calvery said.
“He just had respect for everybody,” Jason Larsen said. “It didn’t matter who they were or what was going on.”
“He was an awesome boyfriend,” his girlfriend, Allen, said. “He would do anything for me. He even asked me to marry him. I loved just hanging out with him, like when we would drive his truck in the back yard.”
“He was a great friend,” one of his buddies, Cody Gregory, said. “He loved working on his truck even though he didn’t have his license. He was always there for me.”
“Me and him used to hate each other,” said Amanda Wodtli, a half-sister. Then they started getting close and talking to each other.
She got in trouble for taking and then crashing her grandfather’s car into a ditch, and Nick bailed her out when a friend drove his truck to winch out the car and get it home. She did get into trouble, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
“The time will come when we will see Nick again,” said Dr. Henry Wolthuis, who conducted the funeral. “There is a life after death.”
Nick had been helping the Allens move the night of the accident. Nick was riding with his girlfriend’s father, Ernie A. Allen, 46. Their car, a 1983 Ford Fairmont, slid sideways off Highway 228 into a power pole, crushing the passenger’s door.
Allen is listed in critical condition at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, Courtney said. He has been in and out of a coma.
State police were continuing their investigation into the wreck as of Aug. 12.
More than 135 people attended Nick’s funeral.
“I’m just happy to know he was able to touch as many lives as he did while he was here, in the short time he was here,” Calvery said, who added that she wanted to thank her family for their assistance. “My thanks to everybody that has helped out, everybody that attended and just gave their support.”