All those years ago, when we first started Twilight la maison de retraite pour les chiens, we naively thought that we would bury all our Puds at home. Mmmm, given we are now over 340 Puds passed methinks we might have needed just a touch more land!
Time has passed, as have so many of our treasured friends. But the Rainbow Bridge holds our loving hopes and memories of so many Puddings and indeed loved humans who have helped us over the years. There are so many names I could mention, so for now I will use just a handful as an example. Do you remember Nana? At 86 years old she did an incredible wing walk for us, raising money for the Puds. Her funeral money bought the beautiful waterfall. Dottie, a friend of Leeanne’s godmum, gave a donation for food for the Puds. Dave, his dear wife Joan now a full-time Hope volunteer; David donated to us as his favourite charity when he died. And Terry, the husband of our very own Susan, an incredible supporter of the Twilighters for years.
We have started to create our Twilight Memorial Garden. Mike gallantly passed over his veg patch to the cause. Our dear sign man, Mark Davies, will make a wooden memorial plaque for these and all the human names of those special to you whom you might like to join us in the garden. Mark has also made the beautiful large memorial sign. We cannot thank him enough for all his professional support of Twilight.
Now, for all the Puddings. You see the bag of stones – the plan is to sit quietly through this coming winter, hopefully with some friends, and paint a stone with the name of every Pudding who has passed through our doors over the past 11 years. But also, your own pudding names might like to go on a stone – please let us know. We will also have the occasional ashes of a particular Pudding to spread in the garden.
As the garden grows, so will the area. Maddie’s cabin is central to the area, her beautiful cherry trees growing with our ongoing love for her memory. Any death, is very personal to each of us. How we celebrate that person or a pudding’s life is for our own heart to follow. This Rainbow Bridge Garden is a small token from us, to be filled with all the love you wish to share.
Leeanne