The big one!

Dear Readers, I wrote this to my husband and framed it along with the picture. I thought you'd enjoy the story. :)

From May, 2004

Sweetheart,

This weekend, you took the boys fishing. They love to go and they always have a great time. Usually you all don't catch anything worth keeping but it's the thrill of the hunt, so to speak. This is just fine with Anthony who feels that fishing is just for sport and all the fish should be thrown back. He is tender hearted and doesn't like to see anything killed or hurt, even fish when it would make a great dinner. We are completely fine with the way he feels, and do not at all make him feel silly for thinking this way. Besides, like I said, you don't usually catch anything worth keeping.

UNTIL YESTERDAY! You caught the biggest bass of your life!! You had caught a smaller fish before that and Anthony asked his usual question, "We're gonna throw him back, right Dad?" To which you replied, "Yes, we are, only if we catch something really big will we keep him." thinking what are the chances?? Well the next fish was the whopper!! He was huge!!! You told the boys, "Holy cow! He must be the daddy of the lake!!! Look at the size of him!" That's when Anthony said, "The DADDY of the lake??? Dad, are we gonna throw him back? I know he's big, but...."

My poor honey, the one time you catch the BIG ONE and only our boys are there to witness it. You said it was mountable, it was so big...and here is this little guy, fighting back tears, hoping beyond hope that this fish will get to "go back to his fam-i-ly."

You were fishing right across the street....so you raced home, dug up the digital camera and raced back so you could get a picture of this monster. Then you told Anthony, "We have him captured on the camera so we don't have to have him captured in real life. Let's throw him back to his family."

You are such a wonderful dad. You made our little boy sooo happy yesterday. I'm sure it will be a memory he keeps forever about his daddy throwing back the big one.

I love you!

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See ya next time! :o)