MISSING SANDY

It was sad being without my faithful friend on Christmas day. In the morning, I was deleting messages from my phone and came across the ones from our son when we were in Croatia during Sandy`s final days and shed a few tears at the memories. However, with daughter rushing off to hospital and our own illness too, I never had that much time to dwell on my sadness for very long during the rest of the holiday period.

I still cry about Sandy a lot and miss him every day. However, I am not so sad now when I think about the fact he died while we were away. There is still, even a few months later, an air of mystery surrounding the events of those few days. Although I ached so much to be here and hold and comfort Sandy, the things that happened in Croatia ~ the butterfly encircling us, the lizard that came to play, the song we most associated with him being played on the evening of his death ~ all add, even from a distance, a certain sense of awe and wonder. There are so many unexplained things in this life.

One thing that has never been in doubt is the fact that Sandy knew how much we all loved him and that we would never willingly abandon him. I myself told hm every day that I loved him and during his latter days I used to tell him I would love him for ever, even long after he was no longer with us. :-)

Sandy was amazing to have lived so long despite having so many health problems. Alhough he was frail in his last months, he had so much spirit. Just a few days before he died, he enjoyed a day sunbathing in the garden with our son. 

When I read those final text messages the other day, I also came across this one sent by our daughter on the 25th July while we were in Greece, describing how Sandy had got up a really big step into our lounge all by himself: -

Lol! Sandy just came in from the garden up the step by patio doors. He is incredible!

And so he was...............