The day before Clara and I drove off to Alaska, Aaron invited us to have dinner with his family to celebrate his son Shaun’s life. On that day, 5 years earlier, the young horseman drowned in Wood Lake. 

“Hey Shaun, this is Filipe and he is about to go on a big journey with one of our horses… I want you to protect him on this ride,” Aaron said while we visited his son’s tomb. 

It was an emotional moment. The wind began to blow uncontrollably. Almost with enough force to push me back. I felt like Shaun was there at that moment. I closed my eyes and asked for his protection. 

Aaron buried his son near the home they used to live in, now burned down, over a rock that Shaun loved to sit on to watch the sunrise. This is where Aaron went as soon as he got home from the hospital the day Shaun passed. 

“I sat on his rock crying and said a prayer to the creator and to Shaun, then I closed my eyes and asked for a sign, any sign my son had heard me. When I opened my eyes a crow flew right over my head. I turned around to see the bird but it was gone, it had disappeared. I couldn’t understand… then I looked up and there was the bird, hovering right over my head,” Aaron said with tear-filled eyes. “I knew he had heard me.” 

After we said our prayers, we drove to the same restaurant we had dinner the first day we met Aaron. His two sisters, their kids and his mom, Jane, were there. It was a wonderful evening and before we left Clara and I took a photo with the family. 

“Here hold my hand,” Jane said almost making me explode with happiness.

She held Aaron’s hand with her right hand and with her left, in a tight grip, she held mine. At that moment, it was as if they had accepted me into their family. 

I felt blessed.