Alex de Carvalho

Laurent Keisser, In Memoriam

by Alex de Carvalho. Average Reading Time: less than a minute.

neck brace
neck brace,
orig­i­nally uploaded by ¡Bastillekid!.

Affec­tion­ately known as “Gino” by his close friends, Lau­rent left us sud­denly last Tues­day the 8th, while run­ning some errands on his motor­cy­cle. He was on vaca­tion in Nor­mandy with his wife Valerie (pic­tured) and 6 month old son, Gabin.

Born and raised in Ried­seltz, a tiny Alsa­cian vil­lage just West of Ger­many, Lau­rent moved to Paris a few years ago to live with Valerie. He was an avid sports­man and loved to fly his ultra­light, as well as to paraglide, moun­tain climb and scuba dive. Endear­ing and good natured, he seemed to thrive on mak­ing those around him happy.

His sud­den depar­ture is tem­pered by the good times we shared and the great mem­o­ries he left us with. Lau­rent, my friend, may you rest in peace.

  • Adam

    I didn’t know him, but the flickr slideshow of Lau­rent very much reminds me of a friend of mine. From your descrip­tion, it sounds like he lived for his pas­sions. A lovely tribute.

  • http://www.tapio.com Alex

    Adam, thanks for your kind words.

  • http://flickr.com/photos/2dogs_productions/ vin­nie

    Touch­ing Alex, he is very much missed, he died like he lived, very fast. He’s allowed us to bond and cher­ish what we have.

  • ROSALIND BORREGA

    I am writ­ing on behalf of all Laurent’s col­leagues here in france, where he worked at BASF for the last2-3 years. We were all shocked to learn of his acci­dent and our heart goes out to his com­pan­ion and of course to Gabin, who will never have the plea­sure to know his father.
    Lau­rent was one of the most cheer­ful peo­ple that I ever met, always a smile on his face — he would arrive in the office whistling a tune. The only time that we saw him oth­er­wise was when he was so wor­ried for the health prob­lems of Gabin, where we could all read his stress on his face.
    Lau­rent man­aged to share his enthu­si­asm for his sports (ULM in par­tic­u­lar) with us, and also his enthu­si­asm for his pro­fes­sion. He had become a knowl­edge­able tech­ni­cal sales per­son, much appre­ci­ated by our cus­tomers.
    I think that in those short 31 years, Lau­rent man­aged to squeeze in a lot of liv­ing. He is sadly missed amongst us in France, even though it is dif­fi­cult to realise that he won’t come bounc­ing down the cor­ri­dor whistling as usual…
    Our thoughts are with his loved ones.

  • Lucky

    Alex,

    Thank you for hon­or­ing Laurent’s mem­ory in such a nice way. He was the lit­tle brother I have never had. I am still hav­ing dif­fi­culty cop­ing with this tragedy. I will always remem­ber and cher­ish the mem­o­ries of the time spent together whether ski­ing / climb­ing in Cha­monix or par­ty­ing here in the US. He won’t be replaced. I hope we will all be able to some­how stay in touch despite the dis­tance. Let’s con­tinue his legacy. Enjoy life to its fullest and be happy. Thanks again.

    Lucky

  • Frenchy 3

    Alex
    Today is a spe­cial day because one year ago Lau­rent leave us. So I wanted giv­ing you my com­ments about Lau­rent at now. Lau­rent alias Gino was prob­a­bly a friend that I will never find again. In the years I Know him I spend so many pleas­ant moments in Seat­tle, Cha­monix, Nor­mandy, Stras­bourg, Paris. So today I finded your blog and wanted remem­ber­ing Lau­rent in this place.
    ps: just excuse my eng­lish
    Frenchy 3