....and MY FRIEND is under hospice care at home surrounded by his family.
Please keep his family in your prayers. My friend is a God fearing, family loving, outdoorsman that is 57 years old and has battled cancer for 9 months. His 2 daughters recently blessed him with grandsons whom heās doted on since they were born. They were the sons he never had. They moved to Bend Oregon from Kirkland a few years ago to be close to their family, he was living the dream. He and his wife skied in the winter, paddle boarded in the summer and hunted and fished in between. Our days of running 50-65 miles offshore for tuna turned evolved into him taking his grandsons trout fishing and sitting on the shoreline soaking worms. While our times together were always filled with laughter and our adventures together EPIC I know for a fact that nothing compared to the satisfaction he felt sitting on the shoreline with his grandsons.
While I cry for āmyā loss I weep for his family, especially those little boys that were deprived of the experiences that were in store for them. His faithful wife and beautiful daughters are the pride of his well lived life and he will leave a void thatās too big to fill.
He was a staunch conservative and faithful man of God. He was extremely civically oriented and gave back to his community FAR more than he took. This past Easter he was hospitalized but he wasnāt going to miss Easter church service so his family and friends were packed into his hospital room celebrating our risen Christ. They sang hymns and took communion with a happiness of spirit that transformed a dreary hospital room into a āhouse of the Lordā. I hope to live a good life so that someday weāll be reunited in the happy hunting grounds of eternity but until then there will be an emptiness when Iām afield or afloat. I will never fish again without remembering the epic adventures and his youthful enthusiasm nor will a successful elk hunt have that same sweetness that it once had. Iāll see his face in the colorful foliage of fall and his laughter will crash upon me with the roar of every swell that washes the beach.
He is a GOOD man that will NEVER be forgotten......he WILL BE MISSED!
