Yosemite National Park is a place beloved by many, including 85-year-old San Diego native Frank Hoole, who had been visiting for 79 years.
Frank had been going regularly since he was six years old and even honeymooning there with his wife, Leanne.
“He loved everything about Yosemite. He felt like it was home. He loved being there,” Frank’s daughter-in-law, Cathy Armillas said. “In his 79 years, he went there many times. He just felt like it was home.”
After multiple strokes and advancing dementia, some of Frank’s memories were getting blurry. But, when he and his family visited the park in August of last year, his condition seemed to improve.
“We were there for three nights, four days, and it was like he came back alive; it was wild,” Armillas recalled.
He even began to tell stories of his previous Yosemite trips.
“He talked about when he climbed Half Dome. We were talking about that, and he did it twice, and we were like, ‘What?! You did it twice?!'” Armillas said.
With all his experience, his family convinced him and Leanne that they had to become Junior Rangers.