Finding Marden...

In my brother-in-law's words. He found Marden Sunday morning.

Well, what do i say? We have all Been looking for my step grandpa. He had gone missing wed afternoon. No one has heard or seen him in a long time. 84 year old stubborn cowboy Marden Stone that has alot of land down south in a small town scipio. He loved it there, lived there his whole life. After a long and gruling search party with well over 250 people, planes, helocopters, 4 wheelers, cars, trucks,horses. After 4 days of searching they called off the search party, I knew my inlaws go riding on sunday so i called up my father in law dennis and asked him if he would come down there and bring the horses. He was happy to come down, kyle and kari came to and brought me a horse to ride. We took off and went up near his favorite spot my step mother told ... about. We found him, and i knew he had passed on his truck had sleed off the side of the road and there he laid peacefully inside of his truck. he is in a happy place now. What a great life that old boy lived and i'll never forget all the great times i had in scipio growing up there as a kid and getting in trouble for tipping over the hay stack or running the horses to hard. Love ya marden and we'll see ya later...

The sheriff held a meeting Saturday morning and called off the official search. At that time he estimated 150 GROUPS out searching for Marden. Sunday morning it was mostly family and extended family searching, and no one wanted to give up. Family of family of family were all involved. On horseback, they took a closer look in the area called Cutler Canyon. They saw where a tire had spun out in the dirt, and shortly after his truck was spotted.

Brent told us that when he got to the truck, Marden looked so peaceful, so he thought he was asleep. Marden had taken off his hat and put it on the dashboard and taken off his boots. He had a very peaceful expression. He didn't seem to be injured. Brent and his in-laws left after the officials arrived so they could do their job in getting Marden out of there. The truck had slid and wedged in between some trees, so they had a big job ahead of them.

Sheriff Dekker personally knew Marden, so this was especially hard on him. My husband Brian helped out in the search and he said he was so impressed by the police's involvement and work. He doubts he'll ever see the kind of care that went into this search in any other city.

The mood back at the house where the family was waiting changed from one of intense worry to one of relief and there were even some laughs. I was expecting a room full of tearful family. There were tears, of course, but there was a feeling of relief and calmness too. And smiles.

My husband called me from the mountain to give me word earlier in the day, and my sister-in-law Kacy, the kids, and I all drove down to lend support and condolences and to gather our husbands for the journey home. We got home about 7:30 or so, and I know Brent and Kacy didn't get home til well after 10 pm. It was a long, rough weekend with an ending that could have been much, much worse.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and wonderful support and caring. I told Grandma she had many people praying for her and she is very thankful. Very thankful.

♥