On the one-year anniversary of Chicago firefighter Andrew Price’s death, widow Lara Price’s memories drifted back to the couple’s last vacation to Costa Rica. They lugged his beloved surfboard across the country in a rented Toyota, searching for empty beaches where he could surf.
“When the waves weren’t so promising that day, it didn’t matter,” she said. “Drew was content with being together, him and I, drifting out in the open water, taking in all of life’s beauty.”
Lara Price spoke Wednesday afternoon at her husband’s former firehouse for a ceremony in his honor. Known as “Drew,” the 39-year-old died from “significant injuries” after falling through a shaft in the roof of a four-story building while battling a blaze in Lincoln Park. His family and friends remembered him as selfless, hardworking and caring.
Her husband’s passion and dream was firefighting, Price said, but outside of work he was “someone deeply connected to life’s most simple joys.” Before joining the Fire Department, Price said, a solo trip to Hawaii changed his outlook on life. There he picked up the expression “mahalo,” a Hawaiian word for gratitude, and a love for waves.
Her husband grew determined to master surfing during another solo trip to California, Price said. He bought a custom surfboard and trucker hat at a shop in Santa Cruz and took advice from locals on learning the waves. Surfing on Lake Michigan wasn’t quite the same, Lara Price said, but he always tried to make it work, “because that was Drew.”
As a couple, they also traveled frequently, she said, finding places where they could wake up to the sound of waves crashing on the shore and soak in the sunshine. She said he was a “man full of love and life” who never took a moment for granted.
“For Drew, surfing wasn’t just about catching a wave, it was about living in the here and now, finding beauty in life’s rhythm, in its ups and downs, riding whatever waves that life brought,” she said.
Dozens of firefighters and friends attended the ceremony, where Price unveiled a bronze statue in remembrance of her husband in a memorial garden beside the Lincoln Park firehouse. The statue is a replica of his firefighter jacket draped over his surfboard, with his helmet at the base. The surfboard is realistic down to the stickers and sand he acquired on his last ride in Costa Rica, Price said.
The Chicago Fire Department added Price’s badge to the memorial wall at the Quinn Fire Academy on Wednesday morning and held a brick dedication at the Firefighter Memorial Park. He’s also remembered through the honorary street sign in Lincoln Park called “Drew Price Way,” and with his name on sweatshirts, sports jerseys and even on the label of more than 300 bottles of bourbon, said Battalion Chief Pat Gallagher.
“The outpouring of support toward his memory has been immense and deserved,” Gallagher said. “He has continued, like he did when he was alive, to have a positive effect on those around him.”
Price was an instructor at the academy after joining the Fire Department in 2009. He was assigned to Truck No. 44 in 2015. Thousands gathered to mourn Price at his funeral last year, where he was remembered as the “ultimate jokester of the firehouse” and a “natural caretaker at heart” who put others’ needs above his own.
Dustin Jeffers was one of Price’s cadets at the academy and became one of his closest friends. While he said the past year has been a challenge — and that his life changed forever when Price died — it brought many in the firehouse together, “just like Drew always wanted.” He gave one last “mahalo” to his friend at the ceremony.
“Drew, thank you for being such a positive influence, a good friend and a mentor. If it was not for your suggestion to come be a part of (CFD Engine Co. 55), I’m not sure I would be here,” Jeffers said. “I hope we all have made you proud and continue to keep your legacy alive.”
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