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The essay continues with the boy describing how he ran back towards the cabin, grabbed some fishing poles, then made his way back to the motorboat and onto the lake.
We anchored at a little patch of lily pads, and I cast my line. The frog hit the water with a little splash. I reeled it in a little and a huge, largemouth bass jumped right out of the water and engulfed my lure like a vacuum cleaner sucks up a dust bunny. It was a big one!
After reading Henry’ s essay, Merges felt compelled to reach out to the boy’ s parents to let them know how impressed he was by the essay. In his letter to Tara Olson Medina and her husband, Dan Medina, Merges wrote,“ Good afternoon! I was just doing some more grading of some writing samples and came across this AWESOME piece of writing from Henry. The assignment only required one paragraph to be submitted, but he said he wanted to write more. It is very evident in the way he wrote about the cabin how much it means to him, so I thought you would appreciate it.”
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Henry’ s mother wasn’ t surprised to learn about just how strong her son’ s connection is to the family cabin.“ Henry’ s first visit to the cabin was when he was just a week old,” said Olson Medina.
The family cabin is a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of their home in Mahtomedi. It is on Arbor Lake, which is south of Deerwood and north of Mille Lacs Lake.
“ The cabin has been in my family for generations. My grandparents were the first to own it. I have been going up there since I was a baby. Now I’ m bringing my three children up there to do the same things I did there as a kid,” said Olson Medina.
When they visit the cabin, Henry and his two siblings, Eleanor, 5, and William, 1, get to enjoy spending time around the campfire, making smores and eating their grandma’ s prized pancakes. They get up there as often as they can: on Memorial Day, Labor Day, M. E. A. weekend and a few times in the summer.
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