He was my friend from work, at first, and ended up being even closer to my husband. He loved boating, fishing, biking, disc golf, running his dog, Kentucky Wildcat basketball, living life. I miss him so much. We both do. On a canoe trip on the Eleven Points River (in Missouri) last year around this time, I sent him a text saying we missed him. His son called me and said he was in a coma from a godforsaken mosquito bite. You know the rest.

Sorry to unload on y’all like this. On this recent trip, we went by the same place where we found out about him, and it stirred up the loss.