Bare with me as I give some background to this hunt.
A couple of years ago I lost my childhood best friend, Mitchell, to AML when he was in his mid 20s. We were inseparable as kids and were constantly in the woods or fishing any pond we could find. As we grew older and went our own ways we still made time to get together and hunt and fish. Even as he was sick we were making plans on buying a farm together. When he died I had the honor of speaking at his funeral and being a pall-bearer. His request for everyone at his funeral was to wear camo shirts. I wore one of my favorite camo shirts. It wasn’t anything special, just a cotton long sleeve with Realtree camo. I probably bought it at Walmart. That was one of the toughest days of my life and I think about him every time I’m in the woods or on the water.
Since the funeral I have thought about wearing that shirt a couple of times but could never bring myself to wear it. I even brought it with me last week on a hunt, planning to wear it, but accidentally dropped it out of the saddle trying to put it on. For some reason this Thursday I decided to wear it hunting for the first time since Mitchell’s funeral. As I sat in my saddle I thought about all the good memories we had hunting and fishing as kids and I’ll even admit I got a little wet in the eyes. I don’t know if it was coincidence or something more profound, but a great buck walked out that evening and presented me a shot. I admittedly made a very poor shot but somehow the buck died quickly in the same field as I shot him. I always thought that Mitchell was one of the luckiest people I’d ever met and had many of funny stories to back it up. I can’t help but think that some of his good luck was in that shirt. I don’t know if I’ll ever wear the shirt again and I may even leave it folded on the mount when I get it back. However, I’ll always have the very special memory of the buck I shot for Mitchell.
Hopefully you guys cherish the memories and experiences that you have with those friends we get to share in God’s creation with!
A couple of years ago I lost my childhood best friend, Mitchell, to AML when he was in his mid 20s. We were inseparable as kids and were constantly in the woods or fishing any pond we could find. As we grew older and went our own ways we still made time to get together and hunt and fish. Even as he was sick we were making plans on buying a farm together. When he died I had the honor of speaking at his funeral and being a pall-bearer. His request for everyone at his funeral was to wear camo shirts. I wore one of my favorite camo shirts. It wasn’t anything special, just a cotton long sleeve with Realtree camo. I probably bought it at Walmart. That was one of the toughest days of my life and I think about him every time I’m in the woods or on the water.
Since the funeral I have thought about wearing that shirt a couple of times but could never bring myself to wear it. I even brought it with me last week on a hunt, planning to wear it, but accidentally dropped it out of the saddle trying to put it on. For some reason this Thursday I decided to wear it hunting for the first time since Mitchell’s funeral. As I sat in my saddle I thought about all the good memories we had hunting and fishing as kids and I’ll even admit I got a little wet in the eyes. I don’t know if it was coincidence or something more profound, but a great buck walked out that evening and presented me a shot. I admittedly made a very poor shot but somehow the buck died quickly in the same field as I shot him. I always thought that Mitchell was one of the luckiest people I’d ever met and had many of funny stories to back it up. I can’t help but think that some of his good luck was in that shirt. I don’t know if I’ll ever wear the shirt again and I may even leave it folded on the mount when I get it back. However, I’ll always have the very special memory of the buck I shot for Mitchell.
Hopefully you guys cherish the memories and experiences that you have with those friends we get to share in God’s creation with!
