Ernie

2024

I said goodbye to my precious baby, Ernie, After 20 years. I sang to him “You Are My Sunshine” until his last breath. He let go one final exhale, and as we were nose to nose, I breathed it in. Love of my life. Magical, extraordinary creature. Louise Erdrich says, “Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.” ~ And we all know that Ernie absolutely did. 🍏