Every year on this day when families return from vacation full of just made memories, begin readying for the school year ahead, every year at this time I count the dead. Because right about now, five years ago, we came home from vacation without one of us forever. And there was no getting ready for the start of school for any of us. There was only a funeral to plan, a death to make sense of, and life to figure out. So today I count and if possible name the dead ones. Those who in the past twelve months lost their lives in the Wisconsin River. Those who innocently were fishing, wading, or boating. Those who in trying to save the lives of others, lost their own in this treacherous river. This river with a killing history exacerbated by an ongoing sinful lack of warning signs and a state refusing to allow survivors to challenge existing laws.
Lynda Mueller, 58
Parker Kruse, 22
Unnamed man
James Dolphin, 62
And I remember Anthony D. Rodriguez who did not come home with us after the Wisconsin River took him on August 13, 2016.
Still.
Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez 
Remembering Tony.