The sad Lady in Bishop's Wood

Have had a pottering morning today. Chris is still over in Broadstairs with the family, so I have had to get up at six to sort the animals out.Since then I Posted Mike Kilner's 40th Birthday DVDs ( the postmistress in the village was greatly intrigued!!), bought Tim's birthday pressie ( I am going to the family meal tonight), got a mass of Violas to plant out and took the dogs to the beach. Prestatyn beach was busy with Mancunians on holiday, (most of them had bull terriers) so we retired to Bishops wood for our usual round robin walk.

When we got to Meliden quarry we started to cross the fields down to the railway line when I saw a woman of around 70. She was leaning on the field gate and made a fuss of the dogs as they passed. Finlay loves all attention and went into his usual bouncy greetings, as Meg and Maddie shyly stood behind. The woman looked miserable and said "I just don't know what to do with myself, I almost threw myself under a bus a while ago".
What do you say to that?! .... I just managed to say rather lamely "Oh Dear", and allowed her to carry on. In way of explanation she said that her dog, an Airedale had recently been put down, after battling Oesophageal cancer. I felt awful as Welsh terriers actually look like small airedales, but she seemed to enjoy making a fuss of Finlay, saying that her dog had had a similar bouncy gentle nature.

We chatted a while, and she became quite animated when she explained that she was a dog fanatic, and hadn't had a holiday in 30 years as she could not bear to be parted from her animals for even a weekend. But looked sad when I gathered up the dogs to go. "You know what I miss the most?" she said, "Just walking with him in the afternoons........", She added "I wish I didn't feel anything, you know?".

I understood what she meant , but I felt there was nothing I could say to help. Sadly we said our goodbyes.