Family remembers Freddy Bacon

Caroline Raining Bird reached into the front of her hatchback and pulled out three 8-inch-by-10-inch framed pictures, each one a portrait of her grandson Freddy Bacon.

Raining Bird, a 79-year-old who lives on Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, looked fondly at a picture of her then-toddler grandson.

"And this was him when he was small," she said, tapping her finger on the glass of the frame.

"When he was about that big I told him 'What is your name?' He said 'Fedie Bacon, Fedie Bacon.' He was learning to talk."

Saturday, 30 relatives and family members gathered at Joe Rosette Sr. Memorial Park in Box Elder to celebrate Bacon's life with a cookout and balloon release ceremony.

He would have been 25 that day.

Bacon was killed in a house fire five weeks earlier.

According to a court document, officials allege that the May 19 fire at 18 Indian Rock Road on the reservation was set by Mitchell LaMere, who got in a fight with an ex-girlfriend and two other men.

LaMere left the residence and later returned with a bottle of gasoline, the charging document says. He then proceeded to set the house on fire. Court documents said both the former girlfriend and two men who were the intended targets left before the fire started. The owner of the house was able to escape the blaze through an open bedroom window.

Bacon was not so fortunate.

Court documents said he sustained severe burns to his upper body. A doctor with the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula later said Bacon died of smoke inhalation.

"Such a gentle soul," Velda Turner, Bacon's aunt, said of her nephew, as she wiped tears from her eyes. "Oh my God, such a gentle, gentle soul."

As the hot dogs, hamburgers and shish kabobs were being cooked on the grill at the park and guests slowly arrived, the laughter and chatter was periodically interrupted by tears and sorrow.

Across the street from the park is Box Elder School, where Bacon attended elementary and high school. He played basketball and football for the Box Elder Bears, graduating in 2009.

Darla Red Bear, Bacon's mother, is a teacher at Box Elder schools.

She was still trying to cope with the loss of her only son, who she described as "the joy of my life."

"I can't believe he is gone, it really hurts you know," Red Bear said, as she fought back tears. She said that hearing that one's child has died is news no parent ever wants to hear.

Red Bear said that when she thinks of her son she misses his hugs and the affection he always showed others.

Jonni Bacon said her older brother was more than a sibling to her, something of a best friend.

Though she attended classes at Montana State University in Bozeman in the spring and fall, Jonni Bacon said she always loved watching movies with him, and the two used to love to laugh and tease one another.

"It's been really hard because we're a really close-knit family," she said. "So it's kind of (like we) lost a really - a light in our lives."

His father, Emery Bacon, said that light-hearted teasing was typical of his son. And at 6-foot, 4-inches and 310 pounds, he said, throughout his life, his son was "like a big teddy bear."

"If he didn't know you, he would tease you and raise heck with you, and that was his way of getting to know you," Bacon said.

Freddy Bacon, whose parents are divorced, lived with his father in a two-bedroom home in Box Elder, where, Emery Bacon said, the two shared a special bond.

"I didn't call him son; I called him brother," he said.

His son shared jokes with him and was always eager to tell his father about his day, he added.

Emery Bacon said that while his son loved his family, he hoped to build a future beyond the reservation. In November 2015, he earned a certificate in pharmacy tech from a Job Corps program at Kicking Horse north of Missoula. Emery Bacon said his son harbored dreams of eventually moving to Texas to join up with a friend he met in Job Corps.

Emery Bacon said he is now trying to deal with the grief that comes with his loss "day by day."

"Some days I don't really feel like company. I just want to be by myself," he said. "Other days, I will try to get out and go visit."

Raining Bird, who is Emery Bacon's mother, said the loss of her grandson has been especially hard for Emery Bacon.

She said that about a week before, she had been with her son, and he had been crying.

"What I told him was, 'Son,' I said, 'it is OK to cry in the day time, but you are not to cry at night,'" Raining Bird said.

She said that in her culture when one who is grieving cries at night, the soul of the deceased experiences that same pain.

With their grief also comes questions of why such a tragedy happened.

"He never - he was never mean at all," Raining Bird said of her grandson. "That is why it is hard for me to understand why they did what they did to him."

But the family members said they have received much support and help from their community.

"We got a lot of letters sharing their condolences with us, and they have all been great to us," Jonni Bacon said. "It's been really nice to have all that love and support around us, especially our family, some we don't see all the time. They really came together for us."

When the cookout neared its end, attendees went over to the back of a vehicle where there were two portable helium tanks and boxes of purple and yellow balloons.

Codi Rosette, Freddy Bacon's cousin who came up with the idea for the balloon release, said she chose purple and yellow balloons because they are the colors of the L.A Lakers, one of Freddy Bacon's favorite basketball teams.

Each person received an inflated balloon on which they wrote messages such as: "love you Freddy." "We will see each other again" and "I love you, happy birthday."

They then walked over to the baseball diamond on the park and released the balloons, the wind carrying them away toward the reservation.

Red Bear said she takes comfort in the idea that her son is in a better place.

"I think of him being up in heaven with all our loved ones that have gone on before us," Red Bear said. "It gives me a sense of peace to know that."