As husband and dad, late Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller was often at work

This is the last of an eight-part series on "Driven: An Autobiography" about the life of Larry H. Miller written by Deseret News columnist Doug Robinson in collaboration with Miller. Each begins with Robinson's personal observations and experiences from the project, followed by an excerpt from the book. "Driven" is available at Deseret Book

The first time I met with Gail after Larry died, I asked her the obvious question: How was she doing? With trademark Miller candor and tears, she said, "I don't want to sound cold. I've been waiting for him my whole life. It's not that different now." She began to cry as she added, "The only time we were really together was when he got sick and could no longer go to work."

After reading the manuscript for this book, my friend and fellow columnist Lee Benson made an astute observation: "Really this is a love story. That's the thread that runs through the book. Larry had a lifeline in Gail, and they lived this whole thing together. It's about two people who started out with nothing, and it ends with her sitting in that house that he let her build and she's overseeing their empire. It was quite a ride."

Gail was the calm in the middle of Larry's storm. He was intense, driven and creative, and she was serene, wise and patient. His admiration and love for Gail seemed to come up in so many of our conversations. They met in junior high; she was pretty much the only girl he ever dated. They certainly had their ups and downs — life with a man of Larry's artistic temperament was never easy — but as Gail writes in the book's epilogue: "I have often said I am grateful that there was never an occasion when we both wanted a divorce at the same time."

I wrote the book in first person in Larry's voice, but after he died I decided to add what I called "post scripts" written in third person following many of the chapters. This provided a forum to utilize insights from other people to fill in the gaps left by Larry's absence. The main source was Gail. In the end, I thought the addition of her voice added much to the book. It certainly provided the woman's point of view in a powerful way.

This is an excerpt from a lengthy chapter on the emotional costs of Larry's driven, workaholic nature. I should note that Larry said one of the primary reasons he wanted to write the book was to teach others the lessons he learned; otherwise, he believed, there was no real reason to tell his story.