“About two minutes later, my dad pulled up into the driveway. He said, ‘Who mowed around the barn?’ I said, ‘Tell him, Bug.’ She told him, and he got mad, I mean furious. He said, ‘I told you, if you ever need anything done around here, you let me know and I’ll do it.’ I said, ‘No, Dad. You realize what just happened here?’

“He said, ‘You mowed around your barn?’ I said, ‘No. Much more than that.’”

Lonnie’s voice got softer, almost a whisper, and there was a deep pride in it. “I said, ‘Do you see that little girl standing right there? To that little girl right there, and to her two sisters, my name is still Daddy. To that little girl right there and her two sisters, I’m still the man. To that little girl and her two sisters, I still can.’”

Everyone was quiet, soaking it all in. Then Lonnie asked, “Now, when I look into the mirror, you know what I see?”

Steven answered, “You see pride for everything you’ve overcome?”

“No,” Lonnie replied. “I’m blind. I don’t see nothin’ in there.”

Everyone laughed and groaned. He chuckled and then went on, “When we get up every day and we look in the mirror, we have to see worth. We have to see value. We have to see we’re needed, we’re loved, and we can make a difference.

“And when I look in the mirror now, I say, ‘Yeedog, you’re getting better-looking all the time!’”

Lonnie guffawed and then said, “That day I got shot in the face, well, I thought the world had come to an end, but thanks to a child, I took a step, and the world was still there.”

27

Since Rob’s cancer diagnosis, he’d been learning how dairy and animal fats could accelerate the spread of prostate cancer, and he’d been trying to eliminate them. But he also knew that, unlike sparse mountain provisions, a river trip was full of temptation: chicken alfredo, steak fajitas with sour cream and shredded cheese, bread doused with garlic butter, and carrot cake and berry crumble. So Rob had made it his No Barriers Pledge to restrict his diet to fruit, veggies, and fish during the entire trip. However, various team members had already been catching him break his vow, sneaking chunks of salami and cheddar. At breakfast, I was right behind him. He had just loaded a pile of bacon onto his plate when Steven Mace—burly, bearded, and barrel-chested—cut in front of me, leaned into Rob, and said, “Hey, Rob, I have something for you.”

Rob’s eyes must have been preoccupied by the display of food on the table, because he asked, “What’s that?”