When the Bedlam Farm Open House ended late this afternoon – the farmhouse is littered with the exhausted bodies of people and dogs – I thought of many things and many people. One of them is Dot, my friend and fellow member Cardiac Rehab, whose connection to Red – and to me – has moved so many people so deeply. A couple of weeks ago, I put up the photo (below) of Dot leaning over to kiss Red in Cardiac Rehab, and the photo became famous, it went viral, was shared many times, it touched so many hearts and spoke so powerfully of the meaning of working animals in our lives.
We had more than 1,000 people come through the farm in two days, perhaps more, I lost count today, one image keeps recurring to me, one among many. It was Dot. She was the face of the Open House, and the love and connection that I felt everywhere I went, everywhere I looked.
Speaking, walking, moving and bending over is not easy for Dot, I do not know the precise nature of her illness, I know what it costs her to move from one place to another. I know what it takes for her to work on the arm-strengthening machine, to get in and out of her jacket, to walk down the hall with a nurse, to bend over to touch Red.
Whenever she looks at Red, she smiles, and it is the softest and most beautiful smile I have ever seen. I was surprised to see her at the Open House, I can’t imagine how she did it. She had to maneuver her walker slowly and very deliberately across the grass and around the farmhouse yard to Maria’s studio, where she bought a copy of my book “Saving Simon” and asked if I could sign it. I was so touched by her determination to be there, to support my work, to see Red do his.
When I found her, I thanked her for coming and gave her a big hug. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she said, looking down at Red, tears filling her eyes. Red was anxious to do his work, but he ran over to her and they connected. We put a chair out of her, and she beamed with pride as Red herded the sheep and I talked about how I got him and what it was like to have him. When the herding demonstration was over, I looked up and Dot was gone. I did not see her leave.
What a gift photography is, that I could capture her soft and beautiful smile while she watched, the sadness and joy and love in her eyes, Cardiac Rehab is a different thing for each of us, a hard thing for all of us, but it an especially difficult and challenging thing for Dot, who never complaints or laments her illness or her life. She almost never speaks, but her eyes speak volumes. It meant the world to me to see her there, my eyes filled with tears as well, she is, I thought, the most beautiful woman at the Open House, and in so many ways.
Dot was the perfect symbol for the Open House, in many ways. Bravery and devotion is a difficult thing to define, and so is grace, but I suppose I know them when I see them, and they filled the day with meaning for me, for me, for my dog, and for the terrible beauty of life, love and connection.
