Life Sketch

As part of putting this Life Sketch together, I’ve chosen to pull as much content from as close to the source as possible. This includes baby books, videos, journals, and explanations from the people who were there with him at various phases.

Starting at the beginning, I pulled directly from Andrews baby book: Born May 13th, 1991 in Cancun Mexico. At 8 lbs 3 Oz and 21”, Andrew James LeBaron was the 4th and favored child, as I will document for you today.

He was named after his Grandma DrueAnne. The other names considered were Michelle, Miriam, or Renee.”

At 12 days old, he rolled over for the first time.

At 8 months old, he got his first tooth.

As a baby, He loved to cuddle with Mama & Papi, and i quote, “was a very cuddly little feller. He loved to be loved by my sister Mandy too!”

And at this point, I’d like to state exactly as it was recorded at the time:

“I was spoiled.

I cried when Mommy wasn’t in the room.
Or when I woke up…

Or when I can’t have attention 24 hours a day.

Or when they won’t give me a toy I want.

Or always when I feel like it, I’m the biggest boob in my family.

On the 19th of October 1991, at 5 ½ months, I caught our Kittie Tabatha and tried to eat her alive, but Mom got there in the knick of time to open jaw. And pick the cat hair out of my mouth.

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It’s been 10 months. Mommy is having a new baby and I have to grow up. Mom has started to wean me, I’m taking it to heart.”  

Andrew had his first haircut at 11 ½ months, forever securing my position as the brother with the best hair.

By 6 years old, Andrew was very caring and helpful with all of his siblings.

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Just remember, this was all recorded at the time of these events, as you can see from the level of detail recorded on his early life, Andrew was a loved and adored child.

Taken from an earlier journal, here is a life sketch in his words:

1993: Thanksgiving play: stuck my face in pie at the end, (symbolic of my love of food.)

1994: my first exposure to carpentry in the family shop. Spilled varnish in eyes.

1995: Played ninja, then moved to the USA.

1996:

1997: Lived in pink apartments.

1998: First grade, and got my first job, saved money, and bought a leather working kit.

1999: Mrs. Leanne stopped Justin from kissing Chelsea.

2000: Scored highest reading score in the class. Got 5 new siblings.

2001: Got 3 new siblings, played lots of video games with Jason. Hated school 4th grade, don’t fence me in, give me home.

2002: secured position of champion tagster.

2003: I dig Mrs. Polly. Yugeo duals, Christian Dockstader, and Aunt Artie.

2004: (13 yrs) Chess. Also, I’m blind.

2005: Got glasses. Basketball.

2006: Basketball, Basketball.

2007: Crashed Car, May 22nd (9 days after 16th birthday), Later that year also dislocated shoulder. (Tough year.)

2008: Joined Basketball Eagles, joined Academy. He got his first guitar

2009: Awesome Basketball player.

2010: Aztec Scooters, graduated highschool, and his mission. In his Journal, Andrew’s morning Routine was as follows:

1. Wake up

2. Jump out of bed

3. Sing a song

4. Dance

5. Today is going to be a good day

6. Wipe the sleep from eyes and run

7. Then, awesome food.

8. Rest, Meditate, Dream, Plan, Hope.

9. Write list, play guitar, read something.

After school, I’ve had to piece some of this information together from several sources, in an effort to capture what was a diverse experience for Andrew:

2011: Andrew moved to North Dakota and worked as a mud boy.  Later, he moved to salt lake.  

2012: When he got to salt lake, he found a roommate to share rent with, but spent a lot of time helping mom and his younger siblings. His impact helping them can’t be overstated. Over the next 5 years, In his spare time he played dungeons and dragons with his younger siblings, took them to nickel city, hiking, played video games, ate and cleaned up with them, taught them how to drive, watched movies, cooked.

During these years, Andrew worked a broad range of jobs. He didn’t ever lose a job. Quite often he would over-work a particular job and burn out. His policy was that if a job ever became stressful or not fun, he quit. Nobody ever wanted andrew to go, and he lived his life without incurring social debt, he always wanted to be the one that did the most for the other person.

This list isn’t comprehensive, but is meant to give you a general sense:

His first job in Salt Lake was at a boys home with special needs. He liked helping, but didn’t like enforcing the rules on the boys.

He did handyman work after that.

He did some remodel at a company called Filtagreen, which transitioned to a job, and ended as a warehouse manager.

He managed some apartments for a real estate investor, and handled all remodel and repairs.

He did contract work as Andyman Contracting.

He was a handyman for Home Depot.

He worked for mom and Dave in Family Generator Business.

He worked for Alaska Airlines as a loading agent.

He landed his dream gig at delta, where after working for the summer, he was able to fly free on standby flights for the remaining 9 months of the year before his next summer gig started. (these flight benefits also applied to his parents, and were well appreciated.)

2014 He started Community College to get his associate’s degree after spending a meaningful conversation with his uncle Brandon about education and what it had offered him, being legally blind. Through much this travel, Andrew was attending college, and was currently in his final semester to receive his associates.

2015 well before Andrew got his dream job at Delta, he loved to Travel. He would often drag his siblings on road trips with him. These trips included San Diego, San Francisco, And Washington

He moved to Mexico for 3 months, working with Grandpa Floren and Uncle Jamie while trying to learn spanish.

About 5 weeks ago, after a night of music at the Piano bar, Andrew talked a group of us into a short 15-20 minute hike up Ensign Peak for the best view of the City. Following a short drive, some illegal parking, and more than 20 minutes of steep incline, Andrew sheepishly admitted that the hike may have been under exaggerated, but emphasized nobody would ever go with him if he disclosed the actual length of the hike.

It was 2012 when Andrew first met Anthony Mesler, he was in workboots and anthony was in his flip flops, and they somehow ended up playing Tennis. Andrew was a complete newb and Anthony taught him how, while certainly appearing ridiculous to any onlookers.

Andrew really connected with Anthony and they later rented and shared a house. They really bonded over their shared love of Music. They composed, rehearsed, and and performed local gigs together. Anthony helped him plan his proposal to Liza, and Andrew performed at Anthony’s wedding.

Music played a very big role in Andrew’s life. In his words he said, “I think music is important because it helps us express ourselves and relate to each other.” His favorite song is All You Need is Love, by The Beatles.

And then Andrew met a Girl…

From Andrew:

During this trip I met up with a group of college students who were traveling Historic Route 66. The group was kind enough to offer me a ride from Chicago to St. Louis. I ended up traveling most of Route 66 with them. That is how I met Liza. We had a lot of fun exploring the US together. We really got to know each other in the short amount of time that we shared on the road trip.

Later that same year in October, we eloped and began a new life together.  It has all happened so fast, and comes with many new challenges, but I don’t regret one thing. It is still strange for me to say the words, “my wife”  but I am sure I will get used to it soon.

No one has given me more hope, motivation, and excitement for life than Liza.

I’ve asked Liza to give me her version of their time together:

I met Andrew accidently, on a road trip. We happened to travel with the same group of friends.

At first, we both didn’t like the fact of each other’s presence. Andrew had already gotten to know everyone else and was having fun and didn’t want to feel shy because of some girl. So he wished I weren’t there at first. To me Andrew first seemed carefree, with no sense of responsibility and too cheerful. Soon I realized it wasn’t true and then we connected. He turned out to be extremely caring of other people’s needs, accommodating very considerate and helpful.

We talked via FB, skype and text during the summer 2015. Then, in September 2015 after attending Anthony’s wedding he flew over to Ohio to visit me. We spent a week together, after which he needed to go back to Salt Lake. (he also visited London and drove through France at that time) Before he came back to stay with me, I received a “marriage coupon”, which I could use whenever I decided to. I called him and told him that I will use it.

I redeemed the coupon on October 18th 2015.

Liza continued:

Right before that we went to Puerto Rico and both really liked it.

In October, Ben came over to Bowling Green, OH for a couple days, and then for Thanksgiving we came to Salt Lake and spent it with Andrew’s mom and the family.

I came back to study in Bowling Green, OH, and Andrew went to Costa Rica for some time to improve his Spanish.

Then he unexpectedly came back to BG. My friend, Katelyn (who later went on a road trip with us in the UK) picked him up from the airport, and brought him to my dorm room to surprise me.

For the winter break, we went to Argentina together, saw the famous waterfalls, and the glaciers. It was interesting and beautiful, but Andrew wasn’t feeling well, so it wasn’t very fun for him. When we were in Buenos Aeros, Andrew’s phone got stolen. Some guy on a bike just ripped it from Andrew’s hands. I remember Andrew being genuinely impressed with that guy’s thief’s skills… He was excited about it! I told Andrew he had Stockholm Syndrom, and he said that what his mom claimed. We came back to the states and joined Andrew’s mom and David on the Portland Coast for several days on a vacation. Andrew still was feeling sick. And when Andrew felt sick, he liked to experiment with his diet… (for example, eating pounds of garlic everyday or not eating at all…). Of course, those experiments only made him feel worse (which he admitted later). But convincing Andrew of anything at all wasn’t easy, so after trying to change his mind I had to give up and just let him do. Andrew was the most stubborn person I have ever met (that he agreed with as well).

After that, we came back to Salt Lake.

In January we went to Wales, UK, where I studied abroad for one semester and Andrew stayed there with me for a couple months as well. He didn’t like the UK too much as it was always gloomy and rainy, and he felt sick again. But we made some great memories therel. His biggest concern was not getting me and other people around sick.

At the end of March, Andrew’s father, Sandra, his brother Ben and my friend Katelyn came over to the UK for a road trip.  We stayed in the town of Aberystwyth for a couple of days, went on hikes, cooked food, built campfire and sang songs. Then we rented a car and drove around the country for several days. Andrew was coordinating everything. He found the best deals on hotels, cars, plane tickets and so on. At the beginning of April Andrew left for the US, as he wanted some time to recover from his sickness and return to work his seasonal job at Delta again in 2016.

MOM: He came back to Salt Lake with his mom and younger siblings to get help to heal from mono virus as well as a couple other conditions. He was incredibly debilitated from to many travels for too long.

When I was done with my studies in the UK at the end of May, I flew to salt lake and we spent the summer there. We lived in a rented apartment, and then in the beginning of September went to Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

At the end of November 2016 we went to Thailand for a vacation, and we both agreed it was our best trip together. It was sunny, warm, and they had the most delicious fruits, which Andrew enjoyed so much.

In Spring 2017 we took a trip to Europe together with my mom’s family. First, we visited Saint Petersburg. We then went to Germany and met my family there. From Germany we went on a road trip to Switzerland, then to Holland, where we visited Amsterdam (we decided it was nothing special), the Haag, and the city of Rotterdam (which we liked). We then flew to Athens, Greece, which we both liked a lot. Our favorite thing was the smell of the blooming orange trees all over the city. From Greece, Andrew went back to the states to do his finales, and I went back to Germany. In several days we met in Poland. We didn’t see much of it at all, as it was just the cheapest way to get to the city of Kaliningrad, to which we wanted to go next. (Kaliningrad is a Russian city but it is actually in Europe and is not connected to the rest of Russia).

After he finished his seasonal job at Delta again in 2016 we went back to Krasnoyarsk to figure out future plans. It wasn’t the easiest decision, but we finally decided to go to Saint Petersburg at the end of May 2017.

My grandmother had an empty apartment in the city, at which we stayed the whole year, up until May 2017. Andrew learnt a great deal about Russian culture, traditions and etiquette. He had a high opinion of Russian cuisine but always complained to me that my relatives made him eat too much. They thought he didn’t get enough food and was too shy to ask for more.

In his travels, Andrew visited the following:

Road Trip around USA starting in New York City. This began when dropping Mom off to fly home from NYC, Andrew said goodbye and walked out with a back pack on his back, and it was on this trip he met Liza. He traveled route 66 (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois), and also Portland, Nashville, LA, plus Mexico, Canada)

1.      Puerto Rico

2.      Costa Rica

3.      Argentina

4.      Russia (Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad)

5.      Germany (Bonn, Cologne)

6.      Holland (Amsterdam, the Haag, Rotterdam)

7.      The UK (London, Liverpool, Aberystwyth +more)

8.      Greece

9.      Switzerland

10.   Thailand

11. France

Though, the last year he kept saying he doesn’t enjoy traveling that much anymore. He rather preferred to stay at one place for longer and really learn about it. Sad, but when we spoke on the phone not a long time ago he said he lost his interest in traveling completely, but I think that might have been only because of how he was feeling.

On the trip to Argentina, when Andrew got sick, while he continued to travel, his energy levels were incredibly low and after months, and multiple tests with a list of physicians he was finally able to recover and resume some daily activities. However, after more than a year, he never fully regained his energy levels. This was difficult for someone as active and traveled as Andrew. There were very few areas of his life that this didn’t impact.

The last 4 years Andy chose to spend as much time as was possible with his youngest siblings to help uplift their world.  As a member of a humanitarian movement Andrew had dreams about facilitating equality and ending poverty. His passion for next generation solutions he shared everywhere he went.

Andrew, like John Lennon really did imagine the people in our world, someday as one.

After all of Andrew’s adventures, he shared with us his family his deepest desire of finding a place to call home and on October 4th, Andrew chose to go home.