It's been exactly one month since Hani, my thirteen year old Maltese puppy girl, passed away.
The first two weeks was enormously difficult going through the deepest grief accompanied by the feelings of guilt from the fact that I was not there for the good latter part of her life. Talking with you friends with wonderful comforting hearts and words was a great source of relief, along with reading books on pet loss and talking with my family in Seoul and others. And the newly found faith about heaven still helps me a great deal.
The last two weeks was more like a period of healing and acceptance. I still feel very sad when I think about Hani, and I wish that she had held on a couple more years waiting for me. But I assume the fact that my physical surroundings here has not changed was the biggest difference. I did not have to suffer from the hurtful recognition of her physical absence here because she had been in my heart and my consciousness instead of this place where I live for more than seven years. Also the fact that I had to take care of a few very practical business of life sort of distracted me from the intense grief a little sooner as well.
I want to thank all of your kind and healing words of solace once again, and here I want to share with you a little collage that I made with a handful of Hani's pictures. This is my little tribute to Hani on this one month anniversary. And I am planning to collect more pictures of her from my family and put together a nice picture album. That will make me feel so much better.