Gone

"Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effort, without the trace of a shadow on it. 

Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it always was; there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well..."

Henry Scott Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral

This morning we got the news: Molly's vet in San Francisco suspected she had a tumour on her spleen (which, apparently, explained her loss of energy but also, thankfully, her lack of pain). She was sent quietly and quickly to doggy heaven with her American parents by her side.

I'd like to think she's in a better place: she's young again, romping with Brompton and eating all the Schmackoes she can cram into her rotund tummy. I think that as fat, salty tears roll down my cheeks; I've been crying so much today my eyeballs actually hurt. Slowly, the pieces will be put back together but for now, let me mourn one of the sweetest,  funniest, lovable creatures I've ever known. Molly brought so much joy into so many people's lives and was well loved in return. We shall be bereft without her.