This photo is a little blurry but so are my eyes…Here is my mom’s funeral prayer card. (For the non-Catholics, this is a card that is given out as a keepsake of the loved one you lost.)
Now my family could have chosen a photo of my mom with her 12 kids or one with her and my dad who were high school sweethearts married for 54 years…
But we didn’t.
Instead, we chose a photo of my mom with her beloved Black Lab, Cody. She absolutely loved this photo and she absolutely loved the dogs in her life. The love for these animals went straight down to her core.
Cut to late 2019, I had just finished a 2-week training course with my Black Lab Duchess for a new show coming out on Amazon when my nephew pointed out, “Hey isn’t Gram’s prayer card a photo of her with Cody?!”
Now during this time between training and filming, I was very anxious and conflicted about emBARKING on such a journey. I was worried about leaving my kids for weeks on end. I was worried something might happen and then never forgive myself for leaving.
I bolted to my wallet where my mom’s prayer card has lived for 11 years and there she was…beaming alongside her beloved Black Lab.
And here I was, chosen for a show because I was a mom who absolutely loved her dogs…just like my mom.
So I made this crazy decision to go for it. Explore the unknown and a wild, grand adventure. I packed up my things (and my prayer card) & my beloved Black Lab and we were off!
It was just last week I got to FINALLY announce what this grand adventure was to the world. And the reception & support you all showered onto me & Duchess was one for the record books. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have the greatest humans in my corner!!!
But like every other major MOMent in my life over the past 11 years, it was also met with a deep longing to share with my mom. This is a woman who used to record and watch every episode of Ellen just to catch the back of Tommy’s head!
My gosh…she would have LOVED seeing her baby travel the world, competing week after week, with her beloved Black Lab by her side
Some of the last words I said to her…
“I promise to make you proud.”
Well mommy, I hope this makes you proud.
