This ones for Shultzy and other bear fanatics
or for lost loved ones...
One of my best friends, Tim, passed away on 1/7/07 from cancer @ the age of 42.
He left two beautiful girls, Sammy (11) & Alex (13) and a very special wife named Cheryl.
He was a special man with a great following of friends and of course his wonderful family.
He grew up as small town boy (southern NH) where all knew him well,
as Tim was a great musician and the lead singer to a band called "Fine Pitch".
To me he was a fellow hunter / snowmobiler / fisherman and all-around, always there for you
FRIEND!
We spent our times together in nature, along with the family birthday parties or just going for a beer too shoot the breeze.
I have known him and his family for over 25 years.
To give you an idea how this gentleman affected this small town is
Tim's funeral had over 450 attendees!
The story behind this picture was inspired by Steve and one of his replies to me on a different post about 6 months back.
~ Steve mentioned that
"it would be a tribute to my friend if I were to get his Bear into the book" and the first step has
been accomplished with an official P&Y score of
19 2/16.
Unfortunately, it falls short for the B&C minimum of 20".
The hunt was a fluke, as Tim went to the "Big E Sportsman" show in Springfield, MA. As Tim was passing a booth for a
raffle to go on a Bear hunt, he stopped and paid his $5. A week later, he got the call from the outfitter telling Tim he had
WON the hunt! To say the least, Tim was excited, as we can all imagine. The special part about this hunt, is that Tim was
going through Chemo Therapy, in which he had to fly to Cleavland for his treatments for 6 week stretches, as this was the
only Hospital in the country with this "new" technology. He had been given a terminal death sentence with only a short
period of time to live. He proved them all wrong and he lived an extra year to go on this hunt, and more importantly, to
spend time with his family and friends. He was a tough man @ 6 feet tall and 260 pounds, in which my nick-name
for Tim was
"Dozer".
Tim picked his hunt date and he told me of the "shear excitement" and the chase with the dogs. They cut a huge track in
a corn field where the Bear was eating. He said the adrenaline was intense, as he could see where the Bear devoured the
corn cobs and had saliva tossed everywhere from it's aggressive feeding. They ran the dogs for over 1 mile, until they
treed the Bear. The guide then suggested shooting him in the neck with his .35 Marlin, and then said he would be
ready if the Bear hit the ground alive for a follow up shot! I can imagine Tim's eye's where the size of grapefruits,
as Tim was a bit of a
"Sheila" when it came to stuff like this. When it was all said and done, the one shot had taken this
14.5 year old Bear down. It just so happened that a NH biologist was with them and he aged the big Bear on the spot.
They all stood around this large black Bear in amazement, and I can only imagine what was going through my dieing
friends mind. To hear Tim tell the story was priceless and is forever embedded in my mind.
The world is NOT a better place without him here, I can only hope Tim is Happy,
because I can speak for many, many people, that we are not!
Such as life and this leads to the old saying "live for today but plan for tomorrow".
Buddy's (R.I.P.) (Almost) B&C Bear
God bless to your family as well Tim.
