Dear Nancy
I still miss you.
You were the first dog
who was truly mine.
You will always be my baby.
I have been missing you lately,
telling my therapist about you.
Tonight, I was writing about your death
to discuss it in therapy.
The weekend we had to let you go,
saying goodbye from several states away,
unable to hold you
and tell you how much we love you
one last time.
It all came pouring back to me
like a wound ripped wide open.
(There are moments when
I touch the past
and it feels so real
that it scares me.)
I cried hard.
I still miss my best friend
all these years later.
I will always love you.
I will always miss you.
Your mommy held me
and we told happy stories
about you
until we were both
smiling and laughing.
You gave us so much joy.
Thank you for sending us a new dog.
We know you hand picked her just for us.
Mommy knew she was meant to be ours
the first time she saw her.
We went downstairs
and loved on Angel
and played with her
for a long time,
showering her with the love
you taught us.
I don’t know
if I will ever understand
how I can love
two separate dogs
so strongly,
so fiercely,
how my love for each of you
is so similar
and so different.
I will always miss you.
I will always love you.
Thank you for being ours.
Thank you for sharing this life
wish us
for a while.
4 thoughts on "Dear Nancy"
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Lovely tribute. I feel the pain of loss mingled with gratitude and a new love sent from Nancy.
Your pain and love in this poem are so real
I suspect dogs are the best example of pure love we have on this planet. Their loss is as the loss of close family. Painful, but good writing, Josie.
Lovely tribute to your Nancy. I still and will always miss all my sweet four-legged friends.
So true:
is so similar
and so different.