more than just a duck

We have lived here for a little over two years. Our home backs up to the neighborhood retention pond and we can see the pond from not only our yard, but our family room and kitchen as well. The entire time we have lived here, we have watched three ducks swimming in our pond. We often feed them bread - well, we feed them the crusts and Carl eats the middle of the soft bread part. There are 2 mallards and one white duck in this trio. The white duck has a piece of his upper bill missing, so when you see him, it looks like he is blowing you a raspberry. Being white, it makes him the easiest to spot out swimming. You can't see his tongue in this picture, but it shows his bill very well.

A couple days ago, on the way to school, I saw the white duck - my white duck - laying lifeless on the side of the road next to the pond. The two mallards were pacing by his side. The body of the white duck remained there all day, even though we have a lot of traffic. When Lew came home from work, he called our home owner's association manager and asked if he was aware that the duck was dead. It really looked like a car accident, but if it was more, maybe someone needed to know in case of disease and the pond's remaining wildlife. We have lots of fish, turtles, geese that visit and frogs. Lew offered to take the duck and bury him if Wade wanted him to. But, the duck was gone later on.

I am fully aware of how silly this is, but I cried for days over this foolish duck. It was just a duck. Heck, I don't even know the lifespan of a duck. Maybe he was old already. Gretchen liked the idea that he went to heaven. She also reassured me that he would come back to visit us and swim on the pond again.

But, his death came less than one week after my father's birthday. He would have been 64, but he passed away last November 23rd. I will never see him again. And now, this fool duck goes and dies. I saw this duck just about daily. And now, I will never see him again. Just bad timing for this duck's death, I guess. But, I have now got this visual loss to remind me of what is on my mind so much of the time. A friend told me that humans are the only animals to grieve. So, although the two mallards may seem confused and lost for a few weeks, they will move on. I don't know if I fully believe her.