London, the Therapy Dog

I took London to Miriam to sit outside and enjoy the nice weather. I suppose "nice" is subjective here, but we had a nice time, nonetheless.

Most of the meetings he had with people were cursory at best. A stop, a pat, a "awww, good puppy" and then they were on their way.

One woman immediately stuck out to me. She was alone and walking with a purpose, but when she saw London, her course was momentarily derailed. She commented on how friendly he looked, and I encouraged her to come over and pet him if she wanted to.

She was very well put-together and we talked a little bit about London and how he went through his TD training, then talked about her Golden Retriever and her Chihuahua. It wasn't for very long, but I guess she felt comfortable with me, because the conversation went to how she just got a parking ticket (the visitor parking is a two hour max in the hospital lots). I suggested she go to the court date instead of paying the ticket because she seemed SO upset about this ticket.

After that, she mentioned that her brother had cancer and was in really bad shape. He was being moved to hospice care--so then, I understood why she was upset. It wasn't the ticket. 

I don't feel great about what I said in reply. I couldn't come up with much more than "sorry" and "don't worry about that ticket, go enjoy the rest of your day with your brother". I feel like I should have shared my experience with cancer in my loved ones. Something to show her that she wasn't alone, even if she was the only one there for her brother.

Maybe she didn't need me to. Maybe she just wanted to vent.

I know her face will be something I remember for a very long time, though.

I'm glad that London made her smile.