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21 september 2004 | |
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It was 13 years ago today that a beautiful angel was born. Upon her birth, she was not recognized for the magnificent being she was...she was beaten and chained...scarred and abused...abandoned in a shed. She was confiscated by servants who sought to heal her wounds but after five months and three different homes...she was deemed unacceptable and unfit for a future in service. She waited...patiently...silently...as many months past...her calling, perhaps, already determined...her mission in life yet to be revealed. Our first meeting felt anything but divine...I didn't want her...she didn't like me. She was a "blob"...I was a kid....it just felt like some things aren't meant to be. To many she was known only as Silver...to us she was known as endless selfless love, as independence, as compassion, as safety, as humility, as security, as vision, as trust, as fortitude, as strength, as courage, as innocence, as purity defined. She was broken yet she was whole...she was lost yet she was found. She was my eyes, she was my arms and legs, she filled my soul and completed my spirit. She made good of the bad and great from the good. She was everything we ever needed her to be and more than we could have ever asked for her to be. Many of you came to meet her only in her 'golden years'....after she tore her cruciate ligament on her 11th birthday when she went bounding down a hill stepping in a huge hole on her way to go fishing. She was a fisher-gal to the utmost degree...she fished for the thrill just as she lived. In many ways, fishing was like a metaphor for her life...embodying the passion, energy, enthusiasm, commitment, drive and persistence she exuded with every inch of her being. She never gave in and never gave up...no matter how many years past without catching a fish! Many of you also may think of her as an older girl whose time was simply up...after all she could not live forever. But her death will always be marked by the tragic path her Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy cruciate repair surgery led us down. While she was older she was young...she was the girl at 12.5 years old whose white hairs could be counted on one hand...as they numbered less than mine! She was the girl who celebrated her 12th birthday by a days long fly fishing adventure...surrounded by strangers who quickly became friends at her most favorite place on earth. She was the essence of ageless spirit. She was the girl who was never daunted no matter the task at hand. Her courage in the face of any adversity was an inspiration to untold numbers. She was the girl who braved two surgeries for her cruciate repair in less than one weeks time...and who still stopped limping only four weeks after the first surgery despite her bone not healing for over 5 months. She was the girl who slapped the ground and huffed a "hello" when we greeted her within 30 minutes of her amputation surgery. She was the girl who walked on that wobbly broken cancerous leg for as long as she possibly could. She was the girl who stood proud as she was fashioned to her new wheel chair and went for her first roll...headed only in one direction, of course...into the water to go fishing! She was the determined girl who trembled and shook and gritted her teeth...and stood unassisted for the first time in five months on her new prosthetic leg just four days before she died. She was the girl who climbed aboard her big green wagon with her favored pillow in tow to carry on her work as a Therapy Dog. She was even gracious enough to allow friends to share a ride in her big green wagon! . We all miss her terribly. Not a day goes by that she is not spoken of with our ending love for her...we wish we could still share her with the world. People wondered out loud how we could do all that we did for Silver in her last siege and we wonder how we could have done anything but all that we did. She did everything for us...she took care of me with such amazing patience and such unconditional love. She pulled my wheelchair through the darkest of times following my brain injury and we were given the chance to pull her wagon through her darkest times...down all the same trails to all the same ponds...she brought me in my wheelchair, we brought her in her wagon. She cared for me 24 hours a day...never ever leaving my side...providing for my every need...and we were honored to do the same for her in her most time of need. Upon her death there was no 'burden' relieved...we would have taken care of her forever. |
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