Last June, over a year ago, a good friend of mine, Glenda Taylor, was killed while warming up at the Kansas State Time Trial Championships. She was hit by a pickup truck while warming up. She was thrown over 150 feet and died at the scene. A true tragedy.
The driver of the truck was charged with reckless 2nd degree murder. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and unlawful passing of a bicycle. He will be sentenced on January 9th.
I can’t really comment on the whole criminal process here. I really don’t know enough about it other than my friend is dead. The guy that hit her is 38 years old and will serve some time in jail. I don’t know how long and really don’t care. No one wins here. It is a bad deal.
Our cycling group, here in Topeka, actually, all of Kansas, really misses Glenda. She exemplified what is good about our sport. She was always a joy to be around.
It is strange how you take friends for granted until they aren’t around. Then you feel bad because you just assumed that wouldn’t possibly be the situation so soon. It’s a hard way to learn how life works.
Anyway, I think about Glenda a lot. A lot recently. She used to come over for Thanksgiving.
In reality, the deal is that I miss Glenda. It is as simple as that.
This is the group from Topeka out in Colorado hiking. Bill, Vincent, Catherine, Glenda, Brian and Keith.
Glenda was the head of the art department at Washburn University. She made beautiful pottery. I am lucky enough to have some.
“Taylor’s body was thrown 169 feet from the point where she was struck. The area of impact where the pickup hit the bike had gouge marks in the pavement consistent with the damaged bicycle being dragged on the pavement.”
Sean – It wasn’t good. Obviously, nothing about it was good.
ain’t that the truth… lost a lot of friends to cancer and cycling. Last fella was 2 years ago, got hit by a truck while biking to work.
Just never know what is going to happen in life, some things you can and can’t control.
Have the wisdom and courage to change the things you can… the rest, shit happens. Can’t do much about, so make the best of every single day. Yah never know what will happen in life – life is short and its fragile in some sense – that ticker stops beating, or some fool runs a stop sign/stop light, etc… and that could be the end of it. Cherish every moment in the now is key and keep in mind shit happens sometimes.
Hi Steve, just chiming in as an old acquaintance from 80’s racing, but heard about your crash and sure feel happy to know you’re coming around well… wishing you tons more riding ahead and can recommend a Trek Domane to minimize rattle to your noggin/ body for the near run.
Happy Holidays!
And sorry about Glenda, so sad. Such a fine line between a harrowing story and tragedy sometimes. I’ve lost a few friends too early too, and just can’t ascribe to the common remark that at least these folks somehow died “doing something they love”. It’s never how such vibrant/good people ever want t go out. They always have so much good to share, yet a senseless idiot responsible for the loss lives on instead. Thankfully you’ll keep Glenda’s story going forward in counterpoint.