They had come together to show time and distance hadn't faded their appreciation for Jorgensen's wife, Bonnie, who also gave generous portions of time and care, from teaching them to swim to getting them to and from an endless array of church activities. A token of their thanks and abiding love of the widow was a brass plaque imprinted with one of her husband's poem that sums up what these trips and years of association had meant to him. After presenting her the gift around the campfire the night before the final leg of the trip, two of her sons and a dozen others who will never be fully disguised as men to Bonnie stood to thank the couple for making such a defining difference and teaching them correct principles that have served them through the years that keep going by way too fast.

As the night deepened in the dimming fire, hugs and tears subsided into somewhat exaggerated accounts of youthful exuberance. Laughter rose and caromed around the rock rafters of Egg Nog Springs. A series of probably illegal-in-Utah fireworks sparked the rekindled connections and a new verse was added to this 45-year-old poem:

In these broken cliffs or in the jaws of life

You're not known for what you're wearing

It makes no difference where you come from

What matters is who you are.

You're only known by who you are.

The Boys from Sigurd, 2009

E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com