It took only one unanswered phone call for Janet Nichols to know Friday afternoon something was wrong.
“He always answered my calls — first time,” she said of her husband, Max.
Within a few hours her worst fears were confirmed. Max was found dead from what is presumed a fall from a hunting stand on land in rural Uniontown.
“What little peace I can find at this moment, is to know he was doing what he loved,” she said Sunday afternoon. “Still, hunting comes with dangers.”
Max, 58, was a lifelong hunter who loved the preparation for the season probably as much as the actual act. He was a skilled bowman, rifleman and trapper.
For years he had set up his stands on a large acreage. He typically reserved Friday afternoons for the hobby, which is why when his truck was still parked at the site Friday evening, the land owner became alarmed, knowing Max was due to report to work at Wolf Creek nuclear power plant at 4 a.m. the next morning.
She left four calls at Janet’s home, unable to reach her. The land owner then notified her son-in-law and grandson of her fears who began looking for Max.
At the time, Janet and good friend Chardel Hasting were on the road from Wichita.
When Janet arrived home and retrieved the messages she alerted her son, Matt, of Gardner.
By the time they arrived at the site, the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Department was also there.
Some three hours later a search party of Matt, Max’s good friend Mark Hastings, and Max’s brother-in-law, Ryan Carter, discovered the body.
In hindsight, Janet recalls Chardel’s remarks that it was unusual for Max not to call sometime during the afternoon.
“I was getting my hair done by Chardel’s daughter, Megan,” Janet said. “Usually during the appointment Max would call and ask Megan if she ‘couldn’t do something to my face, too.’ He was always such a tease.”
But for those who knew Janet and Max, their love ran deep.
Janet was 16, a junior in high school, when they first met.
She was participating in a KFDI Radio singing competition at Joyland Park in Wichita. Max was tagging along with his dad, a disc jockey for the event, when he first saw Janet. It would be difficult to say which impressed him most — how pretty she was or how well she sang. Not only was Janet “easy on the eyes,” as he would say, but also had a silky smooth voice.
