The Sea Takes ‘an Awesome Friend’
The three young men were in water over their heads off Huntington Beach. Two of them looked over to see their friend at a distance, struggling in the churning rip current. They moved toward him, but the tide was overpowering, so Jin Park encouraged Taeho Lee to swim to shore with him.
But Lee was unwilling to abandon their friend.
“Let’s save Cliff!” Lee shouted. Those were his last words. Moments later, he and Cliff Yuan were dragged underwater.
Lifeguards reached Yuan in time, but not Lee. Divers found the body an hour later, at 6:28 p.m. Monday, 150 yards out.
The three Claremont High School seniors were at the beach with a group to celebrate their last days together. Graduation at the Claremont school was three days away.
Tuesday, they gathered in front of the school library, bringing flowers and photos and exchanging stories about their friend, sometimes crying and consoling one another.
Lee was always smiling, said Park, who had planned to room with Lee this fall at UC San Diego. Lee was someone who’d never ignore a call for help, he said.
Lee moved to the United States from South Korea when he was 10, according to an article in his high school paper just days before his death. He loved basketball, soccer, computer games and Korean karaoke. His Christian faith underscored everything in life. He volunteered weekly at a soup kitchen and spent last summer abroad on a church mission.
On his MySpace.com profile, Lee said he admired “Bruce Lee for his crazy moves,” his mom “when she’s not yelling at me” and “God =] for everything,” using smiling-face symbols.
“He was just an incredibly gentle person,” said Hoon Song, a close friend who moved to Orlando, Fla., recently. “There wasn’t, like, a single person that could not get along with Taeho.”
Lee was the friend destined for success, Song said, able to stay up all night playing computer games and still pull straight A’s. “Jin or I would have gladly taken his place.”
Lee, Park and Yuan had planned one last summer fling together with Song in Florida before heading to college.
Lee’s MySpace page has become a memorial, an outlet for friends to say their farewells. “You were an awesome friend and you were always helping me out.... I’m definitely never going to forget you,” one young man wrote.
A young woman wrote, “we all miss you, we all love you ... ur in a better place watchin over us ... take care man.”
Lifeguards say that swimmers caught in an undertow should go with the current’s flow, then swim parallel to shore before swimming in.