
Photo by Louis Cahill
By Mark Greer,
When my son, Anthony, suddenly died in March 2011 it was beyond devastating.
His loss was the most excruciating pain that I’ve experienced during my life time. Anth was a talented fly fisherman and a Green River Outfitters Guides Association (GROGA) certified guide on the famed Green River below Flaming Gorge Reservoir. He was a college student, he tied his own flies, and he fished every waking moment that he could. He was also the kind of angler that would walk up to another angler on the water, strike up a conversation, offer them a secret tip for that specific spot, and then leave them with a couple of flies which he’d been successful with that day. He was also a fly-fishing evangelist, as everyone that expressed an interest in fly-fishing, Anth would take them out with him – teach them to cast, and give them the needed gear to get them started and off on the right foot.
In an effort to cope with the loss of my son, I did two things. I kept a journal where I’d write my thoughts and what I was struggling with, and I started a (picture) scrapbook of all his fishing adventures. I also decided during that first year of his passing that I’d do a special remembrance project for each year for 10-years. These projects, along with the journal and scrapbook, became my makeshift-therapy for dealing with my son’s death. Here’s a list of those projects.
Year-1 (2011) Newspaper article, journal, and scrapbook
Year-2 (2012) Shadow Box w/ Anth’s hand tied flies and The River plaque on the Blacks Fork River (WY)
Year-3 (2013) Steel trout and pencil sketch
Year-4 (2014) Chinese Lanterns (Daybreak Lake – northern UT)
Year-4 (2014) Great Fly Fisherman Should Never Be Forgotten article
Year-5 (2015) Graveside pictures/photos
Year-6 (2016) Colored pencil sketchings
Year-7 (2017) Graveside pictures/photos
Year-8 (2018) Metal silhouette (Middle Provo – northern UT)
Year-9 (2019) Patchwork quilt – made from Anth’s favorite t-shirts
Year-9 (2020) Timmy Grip for Anth’s favorite Sage Discover 5-weight
Link to Flylord’s article | Link to ‘Every Rod has a Story’ video by Tim Johnson
Year-10 (2021) Flybrary