Lee Swartzfager is dying, but he doesn’t want this story to be about that, or even really about him.
Instead, it should be about the kindness of the people of Wyoming, the power of faith and the many hunts to come for his 14-year-old daughter Sadie, he told Cowboy State Daily.
All of that, plus hope, he said.
“None of this has been easy,” said Swartzfager, 45, a Pennsylvania man battling end-stage stomach cancer.
“As painful as all of this is, my hope is we can use it to glorify God and to encourage others just in the reminder of how good other people can be,” he said during a telephone interview from the Airbnb near Gillette where he was staying this past week.
Sadie couldn’t talk. She was out living her dream of hunting for Wyoming elk and deer with friends, both old and newly met.
Wyoming Hunting Legacy
One of the old friends is Ryan Hornyak. He’s been close with Swartzfager since they were kids in Pennsylvania.
Over the years, they came out to Wyoming and other Western states many times to hunt together.
It’s hard for Hornyak to grasp that those days of hunting together are ending. But his friend’s calm acceptance of his fate and continued regard for others before himself comes as no surprise.
“He’s the guy I’d call when there was something wrong,” Hornyak told Cowboy State Daily as he and Sadie were driving back after hunting deer all day near Gillette.
“When I call him and I’m all wound about something, he’ll calm me down,” Hornyak added.
One of Swartzfager’s hopes is that after he is gone, Hornyak will continue to mentor Sadie in hunting. Hunting has been a passion for Swartzfager, and now wants his children to continue enjoying it.
Some new friends have already helped make that happen.
One of them is Shantell Brandenburg, who owns the Airbnb where Swartzfager and his family stayed.
A while back, she got a call from Swartzfager, who said that he couldn’t make it out to Wyoming. He was entering hospice care, but was hoping that his son and daughter could still use the Airbnb.
It broke her heart to hear that.
“It made me cry for days,” Brandenburg told Cowboy State Daily. “I wanted them to get to say, ‘We did this together.’ I wanted to make it so the daughter could have that memory to cherish and to continue hunting for the rest of her life.”
Brandenburg took that sadness and forged it into a will to help the Swartsfagers.
“I made it my mission to do whatever I could to make sure they could get here,” Brandenburg said. “I can’t imagine what that family is going through. They needed a frickin’ win.”
Turns out, Swartzfager’s condition improved enough for him to make it out to Wyoming, though he’s frequently in immense pain and was unable to join Sadie out hunting.
Swartzfager’s wife Melissa “Missy,” 44, and son Jacob, 19, also came.
An older daughter, Emma Knapp, 21, stayed back home in Corry, Pennsylvania.
“The tradition has been to take the kids hunting out West when they turn 14,” Swartzfager said. “Jacob got to do it, so I was determined that Sadie would get to do it too.
“Emma didn’t take an interest in hunting. So, we got her into horses, which are more expensive.”
A Call Out Of The Blue
Getting the family out to Wyoming was just the first step.
Though Hornyak was ready and able to guide Sadie on archery hunts for deer, filling her cow elk tag was going to be another matter.
A series of massive wildfires in the area around northeast Wyoming in Campbell County had ravaged much of the elk habitat and displaced the herds from their usual haunts. Finding a place to hunt was going to be a huge challenge.
Brandenburg figured the best bet would be to find a local elk hunting outfitter who could book a hunt for Sadie, with almost no advanced notice.
“I said ‘screw it,’ and decided to just start calling hunting outfitters and offering to pay them for the hunt,” she said.
She struck gold with Skyline Outfitters, owned by Shawn and Ann Fricke.
It was Shawn Fricke who answered the phone when Brandenburg called.
“I just told him, ‘Hey, you don’t know me. You don’t know these people from Pennsylvania and neither do I. But would you be willing to help?’” she said.
Fricke fields countless calls leading up to hunting season, but none like this one.
“It was a call out of the blue, and she told me the story,” he said. “She was just in tears on the phone.”
The story struck a personal chord with him.
“I lost my mom just last year to cancer, so I know what Sadie is going though and, unfortunately, is about to go through,” he said.
He told Brandenburg he needed some time to think about it and discuss it with his colleagues.
“I called her back inside of five minutes and told her we’d do it. No charge,” Fricke said. “To help them out and to share those memories, you can’t pay for that.”
Getting It Done With ‘Fancy Nails’
With the effects of the fires on the range, Fricke was concerned about finding elk when it came time to hunt. Despite that, they found some elk and were able to get Sadie into position for a clear shot and a quick kill.
“The Lord answered our prayers. I was praying that the hunt would come together and it did — quickly,” Fricke said.
With her father in no condition to hike, Sadie’s parents had been watching from a vehicle, parked some distance away.
By another stroke of good fortune, the elk fell in a spot that the vehicle could be driven to. So father and daughter were able to celebrate the hunt together.
The hunting guides and her big brother offered to gut the elk, but Sadie was having none of that. She started the task herself, and then allowed her dad to pitch in.
“She had her fingernails done up all fancy, and some of the guys had been teasing her about that,” Swartzfager said. “But when the time came to gut that elk, she showed them that she could get it done with fancy nails.”
Sadie has shot and gutted whitetail deer back home, but “an elk is a much bigger animal. I’m glad I got to help her,” he added.
When asked whether it was her dad’s mentoring or her own tenacious personality that made her insist on gutting the elk rather than having it done for her, Sadie said both came into play.
“It is kind of a personality thing with me,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “And his influence. It’s a mixture of both.”
Fricke said it was an honor to be there to see a father and daughter share what will likely be their last hunting experience together.
“It makes you really appreciate the things that are precious to you,” he said.
‘I Have A Feeling We’re Going To Be Best Friends’
Sadie said the experience of getting her first elk was amazing, and she wants to return to Wyoming for more hunting.
“It’s nothing like PA is. It’s so much prettier out here,” she said.
Hornyak said it was thrilling to see Sadie get her elk, even though they didn’t get a deer during their subsequent hunts.
But he hopes to take her on many more hunts in Wyoming, as her father wishes.
The people of Wyoming proved themselves to be amazing, Hornyak added.
“The sense of community I saw out here, that I didn’t expect,” he said. “To me, it’s an uncommon thing, you don’t see that everywhere.”
Brandenburg said it was amazing to meet Swartzfager in person, and his family will always be welcome.
“The Airbnb will be available to the family every hunting season, free of charge,” she said. “I have a feeling we’re going to be best friends.”
The family returned home forever grateful to the new friends they made in Wyoming.
Swartzfager said the kindness of the people he met in Wyoming was far beyond anything he expected, and he wants to express all the appreciation he can in whatever time he has left.
Rather than people feeling sorry for him, he wants them to be uplifted by the story of his family’s experience and Sadie’s first hunt in Wyoming.
“My goal in all of this is that God gets the glory, and that people get encouraged,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
