Very nice story - and a tribute to your hunting partner. God bless his soul.

My story is kind of different. My father had little interest in hunting. He had a rifle, an old Mauser 98 '06 with a custom stock. But he made sure I had a rifle and shotgun when I turned 12 (the legal age for hunting in PA). He would take me occasionally when he wasn't working (he averaged over 60 hours a week) and I relished those times.But my fishing an hunting toutalage was mostly with my grandfather and 2uncles. One of them would always take me hunting either after school or on weekends. My one uncle was the only one in the family that archery hunted and taught me to shoot a bow when I was about 5. He would take me out every day after school during the archery season.
He, as well as my grandfather are now gone and my remaining uncle has health problems that keep him from going anywhere.
I had a cousin that I fished with later in life but he started getting lazy and got caught up in gambling and lost interest.
I guess all things happen for the best. About 20 years ago I met a guy my age in a local coffee shop both of us frequented. We got to talking about hunting and stuff like that. We made arrangements to go hunting one day and have been together ever since. Sort of like Alley and his partner, we are like two peas in a pod. We think alike (scary) and will do anything for each other. We live literally next door to each other now. Either he is over here or I'm over there every night. We help each other fix our car, trucks, cut each other's grass. Just a great friendship. And unlike Alley, I pretty much got him off cigarettes. He has one of his wife's occasionally or smokes a pipe once in a while. But that's a lot better than over a pack a day. We've been to Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oklahoma, Virginia and soon Texas on different hunts. I would trust my life to him as he would his to me.
True friendship is hard to find. And when they are gone, they leave an empty space in your heart.