ROGERS, Minn. -- Shopping trips to Cabela's in Rogers normally don't make people cry but this one brings tears as Minnesota Bound's Ron Schara recently discovered.
Jeremy Keehl, an employee, says he gets a little choked up just talking about this story.
And he's not alone.
Probably everyone at Cabela's felt a lump in their throat that day. Nolan Dynan and his mom, Jennifer, came to shop and look around. It apparently all started with a letter written by Jennifer sent to Cabela's employees on a summer day in 2011.
It read: "Dear Manager, this letter is difficult to write but I feel it's important for you and your staff to understand the impact you have had on our family. In May of this past year, my husband passed away, leaving me and our 10 year old son, Nolan. During the final months of his life, Wade would take our son Nolan to Cabela's for field trips. They would spend hours viewing the displays and dreaming of the days to come.
"They would come home with new shirts, hats and stories of the mountain lion they had hunted, or the big fish that got away. When Nolan's dad, sick with diabetes, was too weak to walk the aisles, Nolan, who was 10 years old at the time, explored Cabela's on his own intrigued with his own rich imagination. But their trips to Cabela's came to an end on May 25th, 2010. Nolan's father passed away. He was 44. My son was more of a man that I could ever imagine that day and told me that God was going to take dad fishing. He addressed the gift card to God and it was placed with Wade in the ground to rest. I cried and Nolan said, 'Don't worry Mom, Dad has gone fishing.'"
Jennifer signed the letter to Cabela's "a loyal customer for life".
"It was such a touching story and such a touching letter that I knew we had to do something to give back," said Josh Kane of Cabela's.
Jim Cabela himself, the guy who started Cabela's, was touched by the letter.
What happened next was also touching.
A statue of a father and son fishing was presented to mother and son. Then, Jennifer and Nolan were made official members of the Cabela's family, right down to their own work shirts with their name on them.
Next, an insider's tour of the store and a look at all those beloved animals and lots of shopping - enough to fill a tackle box and then some. Also, a fishing trip with a pro angler on Lake Mille Lacs. Proof that amongst the aisles of this and that, a father and son found something priceless.
(Copyright 2011 KARE. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)