The French have an expression: joie de vivre, meaning “the joy of life.” People who live with the “joy of life” celebrate and love the people around them. This vitality can ease sorrow and pain. For people with the “joy of life,” each and every experience is saturated with happiness and adventure. 

Chase Michael Luck had the joie de vivre. He lived each and every day with a passion to spread his happiness to everyone around him. True, he could best be described as mischievous at times. Yet, as Chase’s friends and families describe their memories of him, laughter echoes. 

“I want people to remember how kindhearted Chase was,” Chase’s brother, Mason Luck said. “If someone was down, he would lift them up, whether it was with a smile or just interacting with different people all of the time.”

Chase wore other people’s clothes that swallowed him up because he was so tall and slender. He was legendary for his personal style choices: the tacky, ugly purple, wool mask. His random, oversized jacket matched with a pair of sweatpants. His bright blue puffer. And he never seemed to have shirts that were clean. Grass stains from wrestling in the backyard. Red clay from the baseball field. Mud from hide-and-seek games in the woods behind his house. He wore his life on his clothing, each stain a reminder of his last adventure. Chase wore vibrant colors because they matched his spirit. 

“I remember one time we went hunting after school one day and I put him in an outfit that didn’t make any sense and he wore it with pride,” friend, Cody Fifer said. “We didn’t stop talking the whole time, so we didn’t even see anything.”

Every time people reminisce about Chase, smiles bloom. People laugh so hard they lean into each other and wipe away tears that hold no pain. His legacy is happiness. Silly dances start as the robot, move into the running man, and end in twerking. He brought his youngest brother, Easton, into conversations with girls as a flirting technique. 

Louisa Little League has retired jersey number five for this season in honor of Chase. His youngest brother, Easton Amick, will be the only player who will wear it.

“Chase’s legacy is Easton,” Levi Wilson said. When asked what the number five means to him, Easton replied “Chase.” 

He had nicknames for everyone. Or, rather, he had two nicknames that he used for everyone. “Kitten” and “Pookie.” You knew you were special if he called you “kitten” because you were cared for. He wasn’t making fun of you. He wasn’t trying to make you seem small and vulnerable. Maybe, in a way, he was just trying to hold you close for a moment. Show you a little bit of love that made him vulnerable. It also made you laugh because this seventeen-year-old skinny athlete who was just skin and bones who had a heart that filled up every corner of his tall, lanky body was calling you “kitten.”

 “He was such a silly and goofy kid,” Chase’s step-mom, Lauren Luck said. “He just loved to make people laugh, a lot of the time he would just say random things to get a laugh.”

Being tall and lanky was one of Chase’s frustrations, though. Stephanie Amick, his mother, remembered Chase’s delight when, the week of his birthday, he finally hit 150 pounds, attributing his weight gain to Coach William Patrick’s weight-lifting class. Proudly, she shared a picture of Chase, his arms curled in the traditional muscle pose, his face beaming as he showed off his biceps. 

“He would never miss William Patrick’s class,” Amick said. “He’d say he was sick so he wouldn’t have to go to school in the morning, but then he would conveniently feel better by third period just in time for weightlifting.”

Chase was a known goofball but what he loved the most was the game of baseball. Baseball brought out a different side of him than most people saw. He’d do whatever he could to be able to play.

“Chase was really devoted to the game of baseball,” LCHS varsity baseball coach Kevin Fisher said. “That’s what I saw in him, he was willing to do all of the little things that no one else would do as long as it would help the team.”

Chase started playing baseball with Louisa Little League. His career continued throughout middle and high school with this year being his first on varsity. Throughout his baseball career, Chase pitched; played first base; and, this year, he hoped to fill the backup catcher spot. 

“One of my favorite memories was when he pitched a perfect game,” Chase’s dad, Josh Luck said. “We got the ball and some dirt from the field it was on. The ball is buried with him, but we kept the dirt [as a memory].”

Chase celebrated everything, no matter how tiny the accomplishment. Ranging from the small fish he pulled out of his neighbor’s pond to each pound he gained or each run he scored, Chase found joy in everything. He loved his truck, even if it leaked gas. And then, when he got a white Mazda, he paraded it around Louisa and Mineral just to show off.

“One day when we were going to tryouts there was a nice car beside us at the red light so Chase put his car in neutral and started revving it up just to mess with him and he just started laughing,” Chase’s brother, Hunter Luck said.

Everyone faces challenges throughout their life. While Chase was growing up, he endured multiple serious leg injuries due to osteochondritis dissecans, which causes cartilage to die over time. In June of 2021, he received a donor bone and had cartilage put in, allowing him to fully recover. 

“This year, he started coming to his own and coming back to how he was before his injury,” Fisher said. “Mentally, he’s pretty tough considering what he went through with the injury, being able to go through that and bounce back to where he was before being able to play first and now catch.”

Chase’s legacy is his kindheartedness. His joy and humor were his gifts to his friends and family. After he passed, Chase’s tibia and fibula were donated to help someone else in need. He is literally and figuratively a living legacy. 

Chase had the most contagious joyful spirit and it shows as all of his friends and family wear smiles and burst out with laughter while talking about him. From his obnoxiously bright clothing to his crazy sayings, Chase made everyone feel special and befriended everyone he came into contact with. No matter what mood you were in, after talking with him you always left the conversation with a bright glow because he made the big problems seem so little and reminded you that “it’s okay kitten, it’ll get better.”

Gallery • 11 Photos

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Amick

Chase at his preschool graduation with his great grandparents.