Fishing image_out of focus

[Blsiegs]

I'd like to get your thoughts on this.  My father in law passed away on New Year's Eve and we really have very few pictures of him.  This is one from several years ago on a fishing trip that never really worked out because of issues with the rods and we never got to go again.  Anyway, this was my first practice shot and I obviously missed focus completely.  Immediately after this, I watched the kids while the adults tried to fix the rods.  This literally is the only shot I have of them all standing together.  I know I can't bring them back into focus but my thought was to have this be more of an artsy hazy memory kind of image and make everything out of focus if that makes sense, is something like that possible?  Do you have any other thoughts on how I can at least salvage this?  I know it would really mean a lot to my oldest son and husband.  Attached is SOOR with no edits, fortunately I at least shot this in raw so maybe that will help with the processing of this.  Thank you!

[Damien Symonds]

Your first step must be to blur the background. So it's more out of focus than the people, you know?

https://www.damiensymonds.net/2010/06/blurring-background-false-dof.html

[Blsiegs]

Okay, I'll do the raw processing and then start with your tutorial.  I know I tried that before without much success but it was a completely different type of image.  Hopefully this won't be as difficult since the subjects are already blurred.

[Damien Symonds]

How did you go?