Gates Hunsaker

Worked on a follow up story on a young man who is facing a long road of recovery after a snowboarding accident one month ago. It was the first day he had been in a car since the accident and I photographed his physical therapist and family learning how to transition him from chair to a car seat. I imagine the whole month has been an unreal chain of events and realizations, many of which are re-learning things most of us take for granted. As soon as we got in the car he had his buddy connect his iPod, turn on a hip hop song, roll up the windows and thump bass through the entire car. F-words from the song shot from the speakers and rang through the ears of his father and grandfather who were also in the car....a few awkward seconds of silence and then laughter from everyone while the father; Brian, changes the song. We took a slow drive down State Street to a 7-11 where Brian bought and then delicately fed a Slurpee to his son Gates. The words that fail, when you talk to someone going through such a thing, are the same that fail when you try and describe such a connection between a father and son. If you want to know more about Gates you can check out the blog his family is keeping HERE.