Lexi's Story - How my son's beloved dog help us cope with his loss

Transcript

So one of the things that we found after the loss of our son was the support people that were thereafter made the recovery a little bit easier. And today we're gonna talk about Lexi. Lexi was my son's dog that came to live with us after he passed away, actually came to live with us when. He went on to hospice and she was with us for almost four and a half years after he passed away.

So she was a great Pyrenees mix and was his best friend the love of his life. He wanted her with him all the time. So Lexi was a dog that was very protective. Very loving and in way different than we normally would've expected a dog to be loving. So we were used to labs who are pet me all the time.

Everything is about love. Lexi was much more of a comforter. So after Richy passed away she's in the middle of every family event, like Christmas or times that the grandkids would come over either to spend the night or be over for the day. I. Grandma always got them matching or holiday appropriate pajamas.

Well, Lexi always got a bandana that matched the kids' outfits, and she proudly wore them around during every one of the events, during during events, she would always be laying on someone's lap. She would every picture you find, she's right in the middle of all the action, even though she wasn't a.

Pet me. She was I'm gonna lay my head on the, your lap. She was very good with the grandkids. There's pictures that you'll see on the video version of this, that they lay on top of her. They would crawl under her, and she was perfectly fine with it. My youngest son would come over to our house to eat at least once a week, if not more.

And their routine was as soon as dinner was done, he would go sit down by the couch. Lexi would go over, plop her head on his lap and he would pet her and then he would have to clean the big ball of fur up that she created. And we used to joke that she was like pigpen on the Charlie Brown comics that everywhere you walked, she would have this poof of things behind her.

And it was hair. And we had our. Floors changed to very dark hardwoods and her hair would just pile up on that. That literally we had to have vacuum cleaners that ran every day cleaning up her hair, and it was just constant. If we could've figured out how to use a loom, we probably could have been selling sweaters that she had so much hair that came out, but.

She was very comforting to us because that was Richy's dog. We always would say that she was our grand doggy. We'd always talk about her daddy, Richy. She was just very comforting for the time that she was with us and during this video. We lost her about four months ago. She had, she was over 13 years old and which was a long time for her breed.

She, up until the day that she passed away was just always wanting to be in the action. So happy when you come home. To see you and just a constant reminder of Richy. So for us, she was really important in that transition period from the loss of the son, that she was a constant reminder just of things about his life.

There's some pictures you'll see in here that she was always with him in the house. She would come up, just lay her head on his lap and always wanted to say, Hey, I'm here for you. And it was a great comfort and I think that's an important part of recovery of a parent after the loss of a child, the people that support you.

In this case it was a beloved dog that reminded his daily of Richy. And again, she was not the dog that we would've picked, but she was heartbreaking when we had to say goodbye. She just became an integral part of our. Life because she was Richy's dog. So that's why I'm doing a kind of a special podcast just on her.

She was very unique, and I'll post to a couple of these pictures on the video. It was very funny sometimes to see how she'd lay from on her back. She'd have her legs half up on staircase. She'd like to lay on the landing, and part of her head would be hanging over, feet would be hanging. Higher on one side just always in some goofy positions, and it was very entertaining.

Brought us a lot of joy that reminded us of Richy. She also would be, if we were gone sometimes just 10 minutes and you'd walk back in, she would go crazy. She would run through the house, she'd run on the first floor, make of she'd, go down in the basement. Then upstairs, she'd open the back door. I.

She'd run around the yard multiple times, come back in and still had energy. And it was like, I've missed you so much. I'm just so glad you're home. But she wasn't the kind that would just come and you could just pet her. And she was very loving, but in a way that was, I'm here to protect you. I miss you when you sit down.

I'm here to comfort you. She just became a very special part of the transition that helped us. With Richy, we'd have her de shedded had a spa day every six weeks. And when we'd take her over, it was always, this is our grand doggy. Everybody knew the story, but again, she was very special. And a number of the people at the veterinarian people that did the bass, things like that.

They all were very aware how special she was and treated her as such. It's just a special tribute to her, an incredible support dog for us through this transition. And, we still miss her every day. She's been gone about, like I said, about four months in thinking of the people that have been so supportive of us.

Lexi was there literally every day to remind us of Richy and how much she had loved him and how much he loved her. And just super appreciative special for us that Richy trusted her to us. We never no matter how much, sometimes she could drive us crazy because of her energy it was always very special because that was Richy's.

Richy's dog and he, through the years when he was going to the National Institute of Health, Lexi would come over and stay with us. A lot of times. There was times when Richy was working that he would come, she would come over and spend the evening spend at Christmas celebrations when the other dogs were all at the house, other Grand doggies and our dog, duke.

Lexi was again, very special in helping us with the transition and just wanted to give a shout out. She was as hopeful to us in easing that whenever you felt the kind of struggles with dealing with the loss for child, she was always there as a reminder that this is one of the things that he loved most in life.

She was there to comfort