I could see the tree. Your tree. Our tree. I pictured you there, Smiling back at me -Remembering Barkley - Albert Whitman & Company
Welcome, my friends. Maybe you have come here thinking of someone you love and miss. If so, you aren’t alone. This is a special post dedicated to remembering. Before our dog Bear passed away (you’ll find him below with Pumpkin - who is Barkley in my picture book Remembering Barkley), I told him that I would put him down in words so that others could know how his love and friendship helped our family get through when we were missing Pumpkin. I would like to think that our love also helped Bear when he was feeling sad. Isn’t that what life is all about - being there for each other?
When our neighbors tragically lost their dog, Anna, in a house fire a few years ago, I knew it was time to bring the story out of the drawer so that I could put it in the hands of others - just as I had promised Bear years back. Words long to heal.
Thanks to everyone who shared a picture and a memory with me. It isn’t always easy looking back, I know. The truth is, words cannot always capture everything - but my life’s work is to help us feel closer by trying. And so, I dedicate this poem, Remembering You, to those we love and miss. I hope you find your loved ones in these words and in the places you loved together. May their memories bring us joy as we go forward and do what they taught us best: love.
Remembering You
Did you know that your kindness gave me hope
And how I think of you when I hear the words grace and gentle
How, when everything was changing, your soulful eyes always spoke the same message: I love you
Did you know that hugging you made me feel less sad
You, sitting on my lap, cuddling me. Cuddling each other.
Loving you made me feel happy
My favorite sight was you running free in the fields
How I hoped you would live forever, my anchor
Maybe you didn’t know that no other dog was like you - no cat the same
Maybe you didn’t know that you brought me closer. To everything.
Did you know that I wished I could have given you more time, that you hadn’t been sick - that you taught me even then (mostly then) what courage is
Did you know that I saw what a great friend you were. That I felt it, too.
When I wasn’t well - you helped me through
Did you know that remembering you hurt at first, but then one day when I thought of something funny you did, it brought laughter
I still find you in the songs of the birds and the wind in the leaves
And when I look up at the sky at night, I find you in a poem that always comes back to me.
We find each other.
Of all the stars in the universe, if we only get a few - how lucky I am to have had you.
-Erin Frankel