DENHAM SPRINGS — It’s a phone call no one wants to receive, but one Jackie McLaren not only had to answer, but keeps thinking about.
”When the sheriff’s department called me last Monday night, he said who he was, and then he said, ‘What kind of car do you have?’ I said, ‘a Nissan Maxima,’” Jackie recalled. “He said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, yeah.’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ And then he told me that he was reporting a fatality.”
That’s how Jackie learned her husband of 27 years, 65-year-old Richard McLaren, was killed in a crash on S Range Road in Denham Springs last week.
Richard was a father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. “He was a family man, mainly. He loved his family a lot,” Richard’s daughter Heather Manwell said. “He loved being with his grandkids.”
Jackie said Richard’s two daughters were his whole world. “They were the apples of his eye. Oh, he loved those girls,” she said. “He and Heather have always been exceptionally close. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for just about anybody, but his family was number one. Nobody ever met him that didn’t like him. He never met a stranger.”
Making memories
On top of spending time with his family, Richard loved NASCAR, RC cars, Harley Davidsons, and traveling. “I loved going on vacations with him, because he just made everything fun,” Jackie said. ‘We went on several cruises. And Rick said he loved to go on a cruise, because you get there, you unpack your stuff, and then that’s all. You don’t have to do anything else.”
One of Manwell’s favorite memories with her dad happened when they were camping. “We were out playing in the water, and the adults were talking up hill,” Manwell said. “And I yelled at my dad, ‘I said dad! Bring me a Cheeto!’ And that man brought me a Cheeto. And it’s been a joke over the years, if they lived where we are, I’m like, ‘Dad, I want a Cheeto.’ And he’d bring me a bag of Cheetos.”
Richard always took care of his family, and made sure they had everything they needed.” If those around him were happy, he was happy,” Jackie said. “Last year I had five surgeries on one leg — my foot, my knee, my leg. And one time I said, ‘If I don’t clean my act up, you’re just gonna leave!’ and he said, ‘Yeah, that’s my forte. I just run away from my responsibilities.’ But he never ever complained. He was always there to take care of you.”
Manwell says Richard did not have life insurance and set up a GoFundMe to help cover memorial expenses and assist Jackie with future bills. You can donate here. A memorial service for Richard is being held on Friday, Jan. 23 at Hixson Brothers Funeral Home in Pineville at 2 p.m.
“We’ve been married 27 years, and they went fast,” Jackie said. “I only cried once yesterday. I just keep waiting for him to walk through the door. He was my whole world, I don’t know what I’m going to do without him. But I am a Christian. I believe in the power of prayer. And that’s probably the only thing getting me from day to day.”
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