Page 46 - NMHBA Summer 2017

“Perhaps,” says Gary Sumpter now, “LaRae could sense what was coming.”
Two weeks before LaRae Sumpter passed away, the two were in the midst of a normal day at their Cross5 Ranch in a remote section of western New Mexico.
Normal, that is, until LaRae called out to Gary in a tone strong enough to ensure it got Gary’s attention.
Gary’s initial reaction was to think, “What the hell did I do now?”
What followed instead was one of the most touching moments in their long and loving relationship.
“She grabbed me,” says Gary. “She looked at me and said, ‘There’s only two people in my life that I’ve ever loved. And that was my dad and that is you. Gary Sumpter, I love you.’ I said, honey, I love you, too.’ And we hugged.”
“She never talked to me like that,” says Gary. “I think she might have known what was going to happen.”
In the movie “A River Runs Through It,” Norman Maclean and his younger brother Paul share an ecstatic moment with their father after Paul lands a trophy trout he catches fly- fishing on the Blackfoot River in Montana.
But in the same moment, Norman tempers their happiness with the realization that life is so unstable, so fragile, so fleeting, that good times can’t last forever. As the narrator of the movie, Norman proclaims: “And I knew just as surely, just as clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.”
by Pete Herrera
Not long after that scene on the river, Paul Maclean is murdered.
So on that Sunday evening in early April when Gary and LaRae accepted a dinner invitation from their neighbors, Brett and Vera Gastineau, the magic that created the special moment they had shared just two weeks earlier was about to vanish.
Gary, through tears, recalls how LaRae had dressed up and ‘prettied up’ for the occasion. How she had marinated the steaks they would share with the their friends. How LaRae had danced before dinner with Brett’s dad and with Vera. How she made sure Gary got a good portion of his favorite side dish—pinto beans.
Gary sipped on a beer as he sat back and watched LaRae light up the room as she always did.
They had just about finished eating when it happened.
“She just looked at me and just...,” said Gary, unable to finish the words. “She didn’t say nothing. She didn’t grab her chest or fight. She was sitting there and it was like she went to sleep. We thought she was choking on her food. There was no response.”
Gary and Brett did all they could to make sure LaRae wasn’t choking and Vera called 911. The Sumpters’ ranch is in such a remote area, that the nearest ambulance is at least an hour away. They transported her to a volunteer fire station a couple of miles away, but it was too late.
“She never suffered, she never fought,” says Gary. “I think she died almost instantly.”
44 New Mexico Horse Breeder