Julia Hosch-Singh was trying to balance celebration and conundrum. It was her daughter's birthday. In the meantime, the search for her father, Charles Hosch, moves into its tenth day. Time is a fact but not a barrier.
"In this case, there is no such thing as a disappeared dad. I'm assuming that dad is very much with us and would like to be home because not doing so could be deadly," she said. "And so we are still very much operating in, if anybody could do survival in North Georgia woods -- that he knows and just needs help getting back, it is my dad."
Hosch-Singh said her latest briefing with Union County fire officials was about the four to six canines on the ground in northern Georgia, where Hosch went missing on Veterans' Day during a familiar hike off the Byron Herbert Reece Trail.
She said the specialized sniffers are trying to track the 67-year-old attorney and beloved SMU adjunct law professor's scent. The animal can detect illnesses, medical conditions, and death.
"My husband put it, my dad is extraordinary, and therefore, we will do extraordinary things to find him," she said.
So far, the dogs have narrowed the search area on Blood Mountain down to one square mile. Hosch was last seen descending down the mountain. The Union County Sheriff's Office confirmed a person who had a lengthy conversation with him. His daughter said tracking him by cell phone did not work because, uncharacteristically, her father's phone was off and he did not return his family's calls.
Rain could also be a challenge for the emergency crew trying to find Hosch, as it will make it harder for the dogs to track him.
"It's one of those things where you're like, 'it's not him, like there's no way,' and it still feels like that, that there's no way that this could have happened," Barrett Kerr said.
Kerr is the president of the SMU Law Review and a former student of Hosch's. He recalled getting the text that the beloved professor could not be found. Syndey Ryba, president of the SMU Student Bar Association, is a former student, too.
Both attended Hosch's last class of the semester on Thursday where deans, attorneys, his law partner Kate Morris and his students gathered for the class.
"This is so complicated, so outside of anybody's wheelhouse, I think, and but it just speaks volumes to lean on one another, lean on the community," Ryba said.
Students get to hear Hosch's advice for their success. The words still live in Ryba and Kerr.
"I think everybody is just trying to live out the words that he says, and the personality that he has, and the hope and the happiness that he would, you know, venture on with if the situation was changed," Ryba said.
It's called "The Benediction." And, by no means, does Hosch-Singh see it as an eulogy. The words do overlap with his role as a Sunday school teacher. She has heard it enough to receive the words as advice.
"The short of it is, success doesn't show up on your business card. It's not in your title. It's not in what kind of car you drive," she said. "It is how you live a life of service to other people and how well you were able to do that."
The search continues on Friday, weather permitting.