Injuries Claim Cyclist, A Romantic Off To Job His Wife Of 7 Months Recalls Harold Grammer’s Flair For The Moment, How She Felt ‘Like A Queen’

Harold Grammer didn’t have much to give his new wife, as far as material things go.

So Grammer showered her with love poems written on scraps of paper, spontaneous kisses on street corners and a twirl down the grocery store aisle when the mood struck.

It was more than enough for Crystal Grammer, who married Harold seven months ago at the Spokane County Courthouse.

“He treated me like a queen,” said the woman, who has three children from a previous relationship and works as a housekeeper at Cavanaugh’s River Inn. “He was such a romantic. He once got me to tango in Safeway.”

The newlyweds won’t share dances anymore.

Harold Grammer died Wednesday of injuries he suffered when he was struck down by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bike to work Tuesday morning.

Grammer, 31, was hit from behind as he pedaled up the Sunset Hill to his job as a maintenance worker at DYKO Inc., a foundry on U.S. Highway 2 in west Spokane.

He didn’t have a car.

The crash occurred on Sunset Boulevard near F Street.

The impact sent the 6-foot-1 Grammer flying nearly 100 feet into the street ahead. Police think he may have slammed into the windshield of the car that hit him.

An autopsy showed Grammer, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, died of a brain stem injury, said Cpl. Tom Sahlberg of the Spokane Police Department.

“He always said he was indestructible,” his crying wife said Thursday, adding that Grammer had been hit by a car once before. “He wasn’t.”

No one has come forward to take responsibility for the collision, and investigators have developed no solid leads in the case, Sahlberg said.

Police combed west Spokane on Thursday, alerting people who work at businesses in the area to be on the lookout for cars with a damaged front end or cracked windshield.

Sahlberg said investigators talked with rental car employees at Spokane International Airport and questioned parking lot guards at the Boeing plant in Airway Heights.

“All we’ve got now is the hope that we can get to somebody’s conscience,” Sahlberg said. “The window of opportunity is closing if we don’t get to somebody’s conscience soon.”

Police said it’s likely the person who hit Grammer never saw him. It was dark at the time of the crash, and Grammer wasn’t wearing reflective clothing.

Investigators ask that anyone who saw the collision or has information on the case to call Crime Check, 456-2233.

“Every morning when he left for work, I told him to be careful,” Crystal Grammer said. “He’d say, ‘Always.”’

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