Through Hiker, A Story of Growing, Changing, and Saying Goodbye

Through Hiker is a gentle, poetic picture book that helps children explore growing up, saying goodbye, and finding hope through family, friendship, and community.

The story begins with a young child discovering the world from inside a father's backpack, experiencing life through forests, wilderness trails, and mountain landscapes. As the journey unfolds, the child grows toward joyful independence and eventually faces the sorrow of losing a parent. Life continues forward as new love is found, a family is formed, and the journey comes to a peaceful rest-leaving behind a lasting legacy of love.

Through Hiker uses nature and adventure as a metaphor for life, grief, and renewal, offering young readers a reassuring way to understand change and loss. Thoughtful illustrations and lyrical text invite children to move gently through emotions such as curiosity, sadness, resilience, and hope.

Ideal for families experiencing grief, bereavement, or major life transitions-including the loss of a loved one or the arrival of new siblings-this book includes reflection prompts and simple activities to help children feel seen, supported, and less alone.

Over the past six years, Gabriel has had the opportunity as a military and hospital Chaplain to walk alongside many people who are in the middle of large life transitions; be it birth, death, marriage, trauma, or something else. This has given him a drive to provide tools for others to begin uncomfortable conversations about life's changes, specifically around death and dying. During Gabriel's time away from this profession, he mainly spends time with his wife and three young children or running the local Colorado Springs trails.

Emily is an illustrator, animator and muralist here in Denver with over a decade of experience creating characters and scenes for children's magazines, books, and public spaces. Learning to navigate life and find hope again after her own father's sudden death has been a long journey teaching resilience and after many years, brought strength and healing. Her desire with Through Hiker is to foster hopeful and loving conversations about death with her own child, Dewey and her husband JD.