Remembering a lost friend

The other day I wrote a post about John Ralph, a longtime visitor to the San Pedro dog park who died a couple of weeks ago. John and his dog, Maureen, would show up most afternoons and John would sit on the bench while Maureen went nuts in that delightful way happy dogs do.

I got a letter from one of John's friends, which I attached to the original article. But it was so sweet and well written that I'm posting it here so more people can see it. The person who wrote it is named Patricia Henricks.

Thank you for your article about John and Maureen. John and I were good friends.

We met one day at the dog park on his 60th birthday, a day when I was thrilled to be alive, enjoying the simple pleasures o the park and my new dog, Beau.

John came in and announced that today was his 60th birthday and that's it, life is over at 60. I told him he was wrong, I was 62 and had just completed 1 year and 9 months of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and my life wasn't over at 60, I was starting a new day with Beau and a gratitude and joy in my heart for a blue sky, a cool breeze, a wonderful park to visit.

That day was the beginning of a long friendship talking about life, the beauty of simplicity, unconditional love of a dog, and how much we could learn from them. John was a really good man who struggled with life's complexities and yearned for goodness and God.

He found a lot of comfort and answers at the park with people and dogs that we all love. Watching the dogs interact, learning a lot from them and their capacity to freely express joy, playfulness, even anger and annoyance one day and completely forget it the next day. John loved our dog park and the dogs and people he met there.

Rest in peace my dear friend, and know that Maureen is well cared for a loved by a sister who loves them both.