This picture is of my three sons and my Uncle Aaron. My oldest son had hunted this deer relentlessly. He called me, beside himself with excitement, saying he’d finally gotten a shot on it but wanted to wait for us to get there to help him find it. By the time his two brothers and I arrived, he had already started looking. He was pretty upset because it had gotten dark, and he couldn’t find it.
It was one of those priceless experiences for me as a dad, being there with all of my sons to find the biggest deer my oldest had ever killed. That whole evening was bittersweet. You can see the contentment in my uncle’s eyes as the boys recount the tale to him, and he relives it with them. This was the last deer he ever held and the last hunt we got to share with him. Bittersweet beyond measure.
