By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Bob Sheldon Jr. used to go frogging with his father when he was little.

He remembers watching his father wade through the water, waist-deep, while he followed after, barely keeping his chin above water.

After what they have called a tough year, the Sheldon family is focused on memories such as that in honor of their parents, Robert Sr. and Ellen Sheldon, who were found stabbed to death Oct. 11, 2008, at their home west of Carthage.

Family members, friends and regular customers of the Old Cabin Shop, the Sheldons’ business, gathered Sunday at the shop for a memorial in their honor hosted by their four children.

“(Hopefully people will) share some stories and tell us stories about what my dad and mom did for them,” said Bob Sheldon Jr., the oldest of the Sheldons’ children. “Obviously they had a big impact on a lot of people’s lives.”

Stan Pelham, a family friend for more than 20 years, said he didn’t have the words to describe what everyone has gone through since last October.

“It’s just a huge loss,” he said.

Pelham said Robert Sheldon Sr. could be grouchy at times, but he was always around to help. When Pelham’s son was assigned a paper in middle school about weapons during the Civil War, “Bob (Sr.) took that boy and talked to him for three hours,” he said.

Sheldon Sr. also piqued Pelham’s interest in the hunter safety course he taught at his shop; Pelham is now an instructor.

“He was just quite a guy,” Pelham said. “They were both good people, really good people.”

The past year has been “hell,” said Karen Wright, whose father was a cousin of Robert Sheldon Sr.

“You don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Wright said. “You never know when a memory is going to sneak up on you. A smell can trigger a memory.”

Wright grew up close to the Sheldons. She recalled that Ellen Sheldon had always wanted to visit Hawaii, so when Wright and her husband vacationed in Hawaii in February, they took a picture of the Sheldons with them.