Rich Lapati Finds His Way Back –

Finding A PathThrough Life’s Hardest Lessons

By Steve Bigham

Richard Lapati’s young life took a very sudden turn back in 1988 when a dirt bike accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. But as the lifelong Newtown resident can attest, it was not necessarily a turn for the worse.

At 34, Rich Lapati is doing just fine and the future looks as bright as ever. In a way, he says, the accident was all part of the plan. And while the going’s been tough, Rich has found peace with the man that he’s become, satisfied in knowing that he has indeed made the most of what God has given him.

“I really think it all happened for a reason. I was going really fast in my life,” he said this week, speaking freely about the fast times and addictions of his past. “I really think this is where I’m supposed to be. I think that’s why I’ve had such an easy time of it.”

From the start, Rich has always taken the fact that he is handicapped in stride. The love from his family and friends has helped get him through. Rich has reciprocated that love in turn, trying hard not to let his injury change the easy-going guy he had always been. But before Rich could realize the full extent of his life’s “plan,” he had to come to terms with himself. He alone had to find the inspiration that would bring him to where is today.

“You’ve got to either get busy living or get busy dying,” Rich said, quoting a line from the movie Shawshank Redemption.

Rich grew up on Sturges Road in Newtown with his parents, Andrew and Rita Lapati, and his older sister, Susan. He graduated from Newtown High School in 1985 and pursued a career in landscaping, even taking night courses in lawn and garden care during the first few years after high school. Rich admits he did not have a lot of goals for himself, although he knew he wanted to be outside.

On that warm August day in 1988, Rich joined friends for a day of dirt biking in the gravel mine at Daddario Industries off Route 25. They entered the compound despite the “no trespassing” signs and proceeded to ride the dunes.

“It’s like a desert in there. Everything looks the same,” he explained.

And it was this fact that led to the accident. Rich had zoomed along these sandy hills before and had gotten to know the terrain. However, unbeknownst to him, the gravel company had moved a huge section of dirt earlier in the week. To his horror, Rich discovered this fact after it was too late. Unable to stop, he and his bike dropped 17 feet to the rocks below.

“The fall didn’t kill me, but I landed face first on the rocks and the bike landed on my back,” Rich explained this week.

Unconscious, Rich was rushed to Danbury Hospital. En route, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps members had to resuscitate him twice. That day, doctors determined that he had severed his spinal cord. They give little hope of Rich ever walking again. Surprisingly, Rich took the news in stride.

“It was weird. Whoever I heard it from – my doctor or my parents – I accepted it. It was long after that that I went through a mourning process. It sunk in a little bit over time,” he recalled.

Coming Back

Several weeks after the accident, Rich left Danbury Hospital and went straight to Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford where he underwent an intense three-month rehabilitation program. His mother, who took a one-year leave of absence from her job as a teacher at Newtown Middle School to be with her son, said his experience there helped get him through.

“I’ll never forget, him saying ‘I don’t think I can face life in a wheelchair,’” Mrs Lapati recalled this week. But Rich got the support he needed from both his family and friends, who streamed out of his hospital room both night and day.

“The people at the hospital used to marvel at the fact that Richard had one beautiful girl after another coming in to see him,” his mother recalled.

With his parents’ house re-fitted for handicapped accessibility, Richard eventually returned to his home and his life. He had hoped to continue the landscaping business he had before his injury, but soon discovered that was impossible. He finally landed a job at the Federal Corrections Facility in Danbury where he worked for three years.

Rich, always popular, managed to keep his friends after the accident, refusing to let his injury change who he was.

“He never moaned about it. He was always easy to be around,” his mother said. “He behaved like nothing had happened.”

And it wasn’t just the fact that Rich was unable to walk. To this day, he must live through constant pain in his legs and occasional skin ulcers that lay him up for weeks.

Richard left his job at the prison in 1993 after being handed more money than he ever could have dreamed of following a settlement over the accident. Armed with a strong legal team, the Lapati family took the Daddario company to court, claiming it acted recklessly in changing the landscape because it was fully aware of the fact that bikers did trespass on the property.

“After the settlement I quit work and started spending the money and I did a lot of foolish things. The addictions got worse,” he said. “I was thinking ‘let me look like a big man by sharing all this with friends.’”

Rich bought lavish cars and boats and did his share of gambling and drugs. And while the lifestyle provided temporary pleasures, Rich says they were artificial in nature. Much of that money is long gone, although Rich’s family did put aside some of the money in a trust fund which has helped pay for his house in Sandy Hook, establish his business, and cover other costs.

Thirteen months ago, Rich turned his back on drugs, booze, and cigarettes and decided it was time to get busy living.

“Between my faith in God and my parents and a determination to really better myself, I got through it. I woke up,” he said this week. “I’m starting to rush around because I feel like I missed so much these last 10 years.”

Fueled by his parents’ inspiration, Rich has found the strength to go forward. “Dirt Cheap Deliveries,” his snow plowing/topsoil delivery business, is booming. Rich’s specially equipped dump truck allows him to operate his business from the driver’s seat.

“I tailored my business to my lifestyle,” he said. “I’m independent and I love it. It feels good knowing that I can do these things for myself and not have to depend on somebody else.”

Richard’s parents say they have never been prouder of their son as they have watched him achieve his independence and fight off his addictions. Just as important, his mother says, Richard has returned his parents’ love tenfold and has given them affirmation in their own lives.

Someday, they hope, Richard will be able to provide that same love to children of his own.