In a year of firsts for the Saunders family, this one may have been the toughest.

Family members gathered at their cabin for the July Fourth holiday that patriarch Flip Saunders, the late president and coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, cherished over any other.

Trepidation hung in the air as they made the one-hour drive from their home outside Minneapolis to Clearwater Lake. They had gotten through the first Christmas without Flip. Feb. 23, what would have been his 61st birthday, had come and gone. So had the first Father’s Day since his death last October from complications of Hodgkin lymphoma.

But the Fourth, that was always Flip’s favorite. It was his time to bring together so many of the people he loved — but rarely got to see during the hectic NBA season— for some good food, good company and a whiffle ball game between his Old Timers and son Ryan’s Young Guns. The cabin’s yard would be turned into a field, complete with an outfield fence, bleachers and a sound system for introductions.

Somewhere between 80 and 100 people returned last weekend for another game, another cookout, another celebration of family and friendship. They came to try to continue the healing process, to move forward but never move on, following Flip’s death.