Goodbye Donald

Yesterday Emerson found the lifeless body of Donald, our long-time reptilian friend, in the aquarium in his room. He quickly brought Donald's body to me, and with tears in his eyes, he was barely able to tell me Donald had died. Donald was a small Eastern Painted turtle that was given to Spencer in the late spring of 1993, not long after his third birthday when we lived at (and Scott was employed by) Piedmont College (Demorest, GA). His full name was Donald Duck; named by Spencer for the Disney character he was fond of then. Donald ate food from your hand and had Personality. During his almost 14 years of living with us he was well traveled; he moved from Georgia to South Carolina, from South Carolina to Maine, from Maine back to South Carolina and from South Carolina to Virginia, always sitting in the front seat of the moving van beside my husband. When Scott retold this story to the boys, he said that Donald was always good company though he never said much. Scott then recalled another story (thankfully his long-term memory is better than mine), reminding us how we originally kept Donald in a big clear glass bowl on the kitchen table. Donald frequently escaped and would be found crawling somewhere on the floor until we finally bought an aquarium.

We held a memorial service for Donald; we lit a candle and read turtle poems and this one by Thich Nhat Hanh before we cremated his little turtle body in the woodstove:

Peace is every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me,
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy.

This morning Emerson spread the ashes under the hydrangea bushes.
[We didn't have a good photo of Donald; this Eastern Painted turtle photo is borrowed from Seltrut Inc.]