A few of us ifishers just lost our best friend of more than 30 years to a battle with hereditary heart disease. Dale Hert (X-man on ifish) was only 44 years old and leaves behind a wife, Sherrie, and three daughters, Kylie, Taylor, and Jordan, ages 2 to 10. Please pray for this family- and if you don't mind, please pray for me, too as well as Dennis Larsen (wreckless), Gary Lerwick (Da Wig) and John Aguirre as we are having a tough one right now. An account has been set up at Washington Mutual Bank for Sherri and the girls. A contribution can be made at any branch under the benevolent account of Dale Hert, or labeled as such and mailed to Washington Mutual, 2200 Baseline road, Cornelius, OR, 97113
Thanks for any help or prayers.
Here is a recent goose hunt with Dale, me, and Dennis Larsen
Here is me and Dale back in the 80's with Dale's nice blacktail
Here is what we said at the funeral:
From: Dennis Larsen, John Aguirre, Dave Smith, and Gary Lerwick
This is an attempt at a promise to our friend Dale.
Dale, right now the idea of promising anything seems quite impossible- the idea of taking any kind of action at all while we are still stunned and numb feels out of the question. But for you, Dale, we’re going to do this one thing- it’s the least we can do for what you have given us.
We don’t need to promise not to forget you- how could we forget you? You are one of the five amigos and by far the one that kept us all glued together and made us laugh at everything including ourselves. You know us well enough to know that we are all outcasts and kind of weird in some ways and just don’t have a lot of other friends and don’t really make new ones all that well. No one will ever know and understand us like you did and no one will ever have the history and life experiences that we shared. This makes you irreplaceable and in you’re cocky ways, I know you’ll kind of like being irreplaceable.
We don’t need to promise to keep your legacy alive- that’s a no-brainer. Dale- I guess we can tell you now, you ARE the legacy, you INVENTED legacy. Secretly, we waited for your reaction to everything for us to know what to do and to know what the standard will be in every endeavor. We wouldn’t let something like your passing stop this from continuing. We will speculate on what you would do in every situation, and probably pray that God would allow you to give us a nudge of guidance once in a while.
We don’t need to promise to be there for your family for anything they would ask of us, no matter what is needed, and no matter when. I know you know this already, but just incase, we’ll say it now: give any of us a chance to lay down our lives for your family and we will jump on the chance. We are all so completely elated that you got to experience true love in this world and are so thankful for all of your family and loved ones.
Now for the promise. This is the hard part right now, buddy. You see, we’re completely crushed and honestly wondering sometimes how we’re going to go on without you. If you set all the poetic stuff aside and allow us a moment of honesty, we would have to admit that things could easily go from bad to worse without you around. We could loose our drive and determination to hunt and fish. We could stop taking care of ourselves or, worse yet, we could stop taking care of each other. We could even avoid seeing each other because of the pain it brings for the four of us to be together without you.
Dale, we promise not to let that happen. We promise to stay as inseparable friends, to take care of ourselves and each other, to hunt and fish with as much or more passion than we ever had. To love our own families as you’ve loved yours, just like you would want us to. Since none of us have the strength to make this promise without you, we ask that you keep your unspoken promise to us, that you will always be with us through our Lord Jesus Christ until we can all be together again in paradise and in the presence of him that is the very definition of love.
WE LOVE YOU DALE. WE ALWAYS HAVE. I don’t know if we ever said it but we’re saying it now. We love you with all of our hearts and always will.
Thanks for any help or prayers.
Here is a recent goose hunt with Dale, me, and Dennis Larsen
Here is me and Dale back in the 80's with Dale's nice blacktail
Here is what we said at the funeral:
From: Dennis Larsen, John Aguirre, Dave Smith, and Gary Lerwick
This is an attempt at a promise to our friend Dale.
Dale, right now the idea of promising anything seems quite impossible- the idea of taking any kind of action at all while we are still stunned and numb feels out of the question. But for you, Dale, we’re going to do this one thing- it’s the least we can do for what you have given us.
We don’t need to promise not to forget you- how could we forget you? You are one of the five amigos and by far the one that kept us all glued together and made us laugh at everything including ourselves. You know us well enough to know that we are all outcasts and kind of weird in some ways and just don’t have a lot of other friends and don’t really make new ones all that well. No one will ever know and understand us like you did and no one will ever have the history and life experiences that we shared. This makes you irreplaceable and in you’re cocky ways, I know you’ll kind of like being irreplaceable.
We don’t need to promise to keep your legacy alive- that’s a no-brainer. Dale- I guess we can tell you now, you ARE the legacy, you INVENTED legacy. Secretly, we waited for your reaction to everything for us to know what to do and to know what the standard will be in every endeavor. We wouldn’t let something like your passing stop this from continuing. We will speculate on what you would do in every situation, and probably pray that God would allow you to give us a nudge of guidance once in a while.
We don’t need to promise to be there for your family for anything they would ask of us, no matter what is needed, and no matter when. I know you know this already, but just incase, we’ll say it now: give any of us a chance to lay down our lives for your family and we will jump on the chance. We are all so completely elated that you got to experience true love in this world and are so thankful for all of your family and loved ones.
Now for the promise. This is the hard part right now, buddy. You see, we’re completely crushed and honestly wondering sometimes how we’re going to go on without you. If you set all the poetic stuff aside and allow us a moment of honesty, we would have to admit that things could easily go from bad to worse without you around. We could loose our drive and determination to hunt and fish. We could stop taking care of ourselves or, worse yet, we could stop taking care of each other. We could even avoid seeing each other because of the pain it brings for the four of us to be together without you.
Dale, we promise not to let that happen. We promise to stay as inseparable friends, to take care of ourselves and each other, to hunt and fish with as much or more passion than we ever had. To love our own families as you’ve loved yours, just like you would want us to. Since none of us have the strength to make this promise without you, we ask that you keep your unspoken promise to us, that you will always be with us through our Lord Jesus Christ until we can all be together again in paradise and in the presence of him that is the very definition of love.
WE LOVE YOU DALE. WE ALWAYS HAVE. I don’t know if we ever said it but we’re saying it now. We love you with all of our hearts and always will.