Mountain is the first word that came to mind with M. Kade was a Colorado Mountain Boy. He was “cold blooded”—He hated the heat. He skied, hiked fourteeners, camped, fished, kayaked, and whitewater rafted.

One of his friends from Boy Scouts, Mitch, told me about a camping trip where they summited a fourteener. They laid out under the stars and talked into the night.

Kade had a big place in his heart for Buena Vista, where his dad lived. And Monarch Ski Area, where his dad worked. And Georgetown, where his dad lived before. And Loveland Ski Area, where his Riefenberg family worked. And Evergreen, where his grandparents lived.

When the funeral director told me about memorial gardens on top of a mountain in the foothills of Denver, I knew that was the place for Kade’s ashes and stone. Not that any memorial gardens should be the place for him.

I miss my Colorado Mountain Boy.