Cowboy meets his Alberta crush just days before dying

Champion barrel racer Lindsay Sears was having a terrible year when a call came with an unusual request: Would she consider phoning a young bull rider battling cancer? Sears didn’t know Cody Stephens. He’d seen her race on the rodeo circuit and admired her when she nabbed the world championship in 2008. From afar, the cowboy from small-town Kansas developed a big crush on the cowgirl raised south of Calgary in Nanton, Alta. Stephens had hoped one day to meet Sears, maybe even marry the lean blond beauty, but time was running out. Last spring he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. The National Rodeo Finals in Las Vegas loomed. She’d have to defend her title. But she hadn’t ridden Martha in months. She decided to quit pro rodeo. Then came the call from Stephens’ friend Ann Brumback. It set in motion a series of encounters that would profoundly change Sears’ outlook on life, and bring some comfort to Stephens...read more