Just want to let you know how much we miss you. xxxxx Things are just not the same without you. * * *
Added: January 1, 2017
Entry by: Eunice
Christmas, your favorite holiday, has come and gone - you were sorely missed; the "name game" wasn't the same without you. Thought of you often, we raised a glass to you. You would have had a blast - love and miss you
Added: December 26, 2016
Entry by: Alex & RoseAnn From: Los Angeles E-mail: Contact
It's your birthday today my dear friend, we all miss you so much even more so today, you always share a birthday celebration with Ian and it was so hard to not have you here with your enthusiastic love of life. Raising a glass for you my friend and hope where ever you are your raising a glass too. xxxx
Added: October 2, 2016
Entry by: Eunice
I think of you everyday, and more so now that your wedding anniversary is tomorrow. We all wish you were here to celebrate it with Janet. Love and miss you, big man xx
Added: September 22, 2016
Entry by: RoseAnn & Alex From: Los Angeles E-mail: Contact
Been riding your bike lately. I'm in love it's such a great way to exercise and enjoy life. I know you were probably looking down on Janet and I trying to pump up the tires and laughing but I've got it all sorted out now. Going to try and do the 100 miles for you at either the Solvang or Wild Flower. Wish you were here to show me proper riding skills. Love you and miss you forever in my thoughts
Added: September 20, 2016
Entry by: Ian Welsh From: Sherman oaks
It's my birthday tomorrow and I really wish you were here to have a glass of wine with us ( I Know what you would say "A glass of wine ???? REALLY !!!!!!" anyway we think of you always and miss you a whole lot. A great big Cheers to you where ever you are..xoxox
Added: August 14, 2016
Entry by: Eunice
Richard, I never ever met you once in my life, but hearing the funny stories from Eunice makes me feel like I knew you and Janet. Everything was always Janet and Richard this and Janet and Richard that. I saw your Celebration of Life and heard all the speeches and read many entries about you, so when I put everything together it just screams out at me so naturally that you were the most amazing and beautiful soul. Janet the love you and Richard shared was one of a kind and you were definitely meant for each other. I know he is still watching over you. I will miss asking Eunice "tell me the story again" from your vacation adventures, but the stories I have already heard will live in My Heart Forever!!!
Added: June 10, 2016
Entry by: Linda Lane From: Lakewood, California E-mail: Contact
Rich ! Oh how much we miss you we had so many great times with you and its hard to just let them go , we know that you are in a better place where you are playing golf and drinking wine. I remember when i was so small and i met you and you were so tall and i was like wow and i would have to look up to you all the time to talk and you would give me high fives all the time , one time when we were playing catch with a baseball all of us together you threw it straight at me and we laughed and laughed for an hour straight even me that got hit with the ball!! We miss you and i hope that you are looking over me from where ever you are. Every time i golf i will forever think of you and every match that i get to wrestle its for you we love you rich little pancho and big pancho! We are so blessed to have spend many memories and laughs with you.
For a Goalie Goal keepers are, generally speaking, an unusual sort: it takes a great deal of, well... something, that most other people don't have, a willingness to put yourself in harm's way as the final line of defense, stand alone as the one chance to stop an offensive assault, lest your entire team pays a price. And it is particularly difficult when you're talking about lacrosse, where a very hard and very heavy ball is shot at a goalie at speeds that can approach 100 mph, where shots can come almost unseen, from behind or around a screen, and the goalie, unlike hockey, wears a minimum of protective equipment. When you do stop the ball, it is to be expected: after all, you're the goalie—it's your job. When you don't stop the ball, for everyone watching (including far too many of the players) it is somehow your failing—after all, you're the one taking the ball from out of the net behind you. It was in that context when I first met Richard Krutosik, or “Cro”, as he was introduced to me at the very beginning, and stayed so until the very end. He was unlike all the other goalies we had had. He was big, physically; he stood almost a head taller than the 6 by 6 foot goal, and was as physically strong as the football player he had come out to California to be. But he was quick, too, as quick as the littler goalies, and the combination made him an impressive, and highly effective, player in goal. But it was his attitude, his demeanor, that truly differentiated him from other goalies. The others were, as a group, flighty, unreliable, puffed up, unpredictable. All too often, it seemed like they were doing you a favor by being your goalie, that they knew you needed them more than they needed you. For most goalies, giving up a goal was a cue for histrionics, for kicked turf, for demonstrating for others, it seemed, how much better than the shooter they were, only they just didn't stop that last one. As a defenseman, I could only silently * * * about what seemed to be the basic character flaws found in genus goalie, as those personality traits somehow seemed to come with the territory. So to have Cro as our goalie was a revelation. He was reliable, and seemed to genuinely love playing; it was something that linked his growing up on the East Coast with his new, adult life in Southern California. His massive body was critical to his efficiency in goal, but stopping a shot with his body, even (especially?) a hard shot, was something to be minimized, dismissed with a disdainful shake of his head, not something to be later bragged about. After giving up a goal, it was enough for Cro to sweep the ball from the net with a shrug. And after the game, win or lose, the opportunity to drink beers, to smile and laugh, and to appreciate that all the players had been given the opportunity to participate in something that was good and satisfying was never lost on him. Although no one liked giving up a goal any less than Cro, he would be upset only if he felt he had somehow not given his best. He seemed to understand that he was human, that some shots would get past, no matter what, and it was all he could do to do his very best on every play and be done with it. It was the effort, the stepping up and meeting the challenge, that was the accomplishment, as much as any end result. In the decades that followed, I learned that that was the essential Cro, that the fundamental nature of the person I met that first day on the field would be there to be seen and appreciated till the very last. Did he change, evolve, develop as human being? As much as anyone I have known. But did he stay true to himself, to the essential nature of Cro? Again, as much as anyone I have known. And why not? After all, when you have already figured out that physical pain was something to be dismissed with a shake of the head, that those things that might be perceived by others as failure was something to be swept away with a shrug, that the important thing was giving your absolute best, and that appreciating the opportunity that life offered and celebrating it with friends was more important than any end result, why would you allow it to be compromised? Cro understood that that was the real goal in life, and it was something worthy of keeping.
Dearest Richard, I know from up in the clouds, your view must be magical, just as the gentle giant that you are. I know for sure those angels that surround you are a happy group with your humor and jokes. You made lots of people smile and laugh during your short time on earth. Thanks for the best wheelchair ride at UCLA 21 years ago, almost to the day, when Torianne was born!!! I'll never forget your expression when you and Janet arrived on time for our Halloween Party, we were not dressed in costume yet, when I opened the door saying "I didn't say it was a costume party, did I?" the expressions on your faces were priceless. Your green, 7 ft Herman Monster face is something I'll never forget!!! Memories I'll always cherish with a smile and a tear.
Richard, till we meet again, always know I admired your strength, your humor and your love for Janet. Life won't be the same without you!!!
XOXO, Lucy and Andreas!!!
Added: May 31, 2016
Entry by: Lucy and Andreas Schiff From: Los Angeles E-mail: Contact
Just want to let you know how much we miss you. xxxxx Things are just not the same without you. * * *
Entry by: Eunice