📸 “Every Year on This Day, He Takes the Same Photo”
📸 “Every Year on This Day, He Takes the Same Photo”
– Because It Was the Last Thing They Did Together
Boulder, Colorado. 2020–Present.
Every year, on October 12th,
Eli Thompson, now 31,
drives 43 minutes into the mountains.
Parks by a bend in the trail near Lake Isabelle.
Pulls out a tripod.
Sets his phone.
Stands at the exact same spot —
and takes one single photo.
📅 Why That Day?
It was the day of their last hike.
The day before his father, Caleb,
died of a sudden aneurysm in 2019.
They’d climbed the ridge.
Laughed at squirrels stealing their trail mix.
Watched the sun dip behind the aspens.
Caleb turned to Eli and said:
“Take a picture, son.
This’ll be one of those days you’ll wish you could replay.”
He was right.
📷 The First Solo Photo
The next year, Eli came back alone.
Same day.
Same clothes.
Same pose.
He took the photo.
Then cried for twenty minutes.
But he returned every year since.
📁 A Growing Album
Now there are 5 photos.
Each one shows Eli a little older.
His beard fuller.
His eyes a little softer.
And in one, he's holding his newborn daughter.
“I told her,
‘This is where your grandfather laughed like a boy.’”
📬 Why He Keeps Doing It
People ask him if it gets easier.
He says:
“No. But now it feels less like grief and more like conversation.
Like I’m saying:
‘Still here, Dad. Still climbing. Still remembering.’”
🧑🎓 Eli’s Initiative
He started a nonprofit called:
“Same Spot Project”
Helping grieving families revisit sacred places with ritual and photography.
They say photos freeze time.
But Eli believes:
“Photos can thaw pain.
And rewarm a memory.”
🌄 Moral of the Story?
Grief isn’t just about letting go.
Sometimes it’s about going back —
to the places where love still echoes
through light, trees, and footsteps.
One frame at a time.
📸 Hashtags
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#SameSpotEveryYear
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#EliAndCaleb
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#GriefThroughPhotos
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#MemoryInFocus
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#OneDayOneFrame
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#HikingWithGhosts
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#RitualOfRemembrance
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#StillClimbingDad
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#LegacyInPictures
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#AnnualEchoes
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