A River To Unite

When we first moved to Oregon, we found a place that we really connected with spiritually. The first time I visited was with my parents, wife and son. We just walked the paths and listened to the river, it was then that my mom, always thinking ahead, planned for a long weekend there. A weekend with all of us. My brother, his boys, mom and dad and some close friends of theirs George and Gail. At the time she made the reservation, it seemed a long, long way off 2 years to be exact. I was excited at the thought of spending some real time there and photographing the area and really seeing its secrets. The McKenzie River runs right through it and provides the water for the hot springs that bubble throughout the grounds. The name of the lodge and campground is Belknap. But for me its defined by more than a name. There is a lot of positive energy there and judging by the way they keep the grounds, its obvious that there is an equal amount of love and hard work.
The months passed and as they did, a profound change was in the works. We had decided to leave Oregon for the Midwest. I was determined that we would not leave until after this trip. It meant a lot to me, and even more now that I was leaving. Not so much because it would be a long time until I saw it again, but that it would be the last big camping trip with my family that I would have in awhile and I really wanted it to be special. My focus switched from shooting images of nature to those of the heart and mainly, I wanted to capture memories that I would visit often in my new surroundings. It was around this time that my aunt Bobby Jo who lived in Prospect Oregon was diagnosed with colon cancer, this came as a big surprise as she was already battling breast cancer. It became clear very quickly that it was advanced and that her time with us was going to be short. Too short. That weekend, she went into the hospital for emergency surgery and passed away.
I got a call from my mom the next morning and she broke the news. I didn’t know it at that instant, but this trip we had planned for so long was about to take another turn in its dimension. Her funeral would be on the weekend of our trip. It was within driving distance of Belknap and it felt like the perfect timing, we would all be together and we could all say goodbye together. As the weekend drew closer and our lives even more hectic, I made the decision to say goodbye in my own way and not make the long drive from Belknap to Prospect with my parents. This was a hard choice to make, but one I felt was best for my family. Now this may seem strange to some, even disrespectful at such a sensitive time, but one thing that I missed the previous summer was a chance to go white water rafting with Bobby Jo and all my cousins on the Rogue River. It just didn’t happen, the way lots of things don’t that seem like they should. Well I would never have the chance again so when my son asked to go rafting that day, Kim and I enthusiastically agreed and signed up. We invited my brother and his boys to join us, but they had just gone recently and weren’t really interested. No worries, this day was for celebrating life anyway you wanted and we were going to do just that. As we gathered our stuff to meet the river guides, my brother had a change of heart and they were “onboard” with the whole rafting idea, literally. That made me happy, it felt complete.
We put in about 13 miles up river where the water temperature was a chest squeezing 42 degrees.
As we meandered down the river, our guide talked to us about the rapids and informed us that anything on the river was ours to name. Sure they already had names for the rapids like, Fluffy White Bunny for example, which describes a rapid that looked hungry for any boat that dared near it. I think we all quickly forgot to name these monster rapids and instead concentrated on just getting through them. We were having a great time. All of us together on one raft. As we hit slow pockets, we engaged in water fights with other boats and took in our surroundings. It was one of these lulls that Eric, says, “This is exactly what Bobby Jo would have wanted us to do today”. And he was right! With that warm thought still fresh, we encountered a rare sight that even the guide was surprised to see. A Bald Eagle. She was flying up the river that we were going down, appropriately, as this magnificent spirit was briefly making contact as she continued on her own journey and we on ours. Much like Bobby Jo. We watched her until we came to a bend in the river and went our separate ways. The guide said she was ours to name and with that, Eric turned to me and suggested the only name it could be, Bobby Jo.
It was perfect, for me, the feeling was that we had just said our goodbye. Its hard to describe, but it one of those feelings that you just know, you cant prove and to some it may sound silly, but at the end of the day, you know in your heart and it helps you close your eyes and sleep deep.
Bobby Jo remains one of the richest souls I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Truly a person that would do anything for you. And when she wasn’t sharing her life with you, she was providing a rock solid moral compass that has influenced me and countless others over the years. She will be missed in too many ways to count by those who’s lives she enriched. Also a magnificent spirit that will fly on.