03/29/2026
Now that I am an old woman I am paying more attention to things that go on around me. For example, my neighbor passed away and the show her relatives put on was something that I wish I could have looked away from.
I had become friends with her when my husband and I moved in to the neighborhood over sixty years ago. We both locked arms and walked into the cemetery together when our husbands passed away. We were there for each other when out children left home and we checked on each other when one by one our friends passed away and the dust started to settle on our front porch.
I watched her family and friends come in and carry her stuff out one piece at a time. I heard the fighting over things that didn’t even matter and then I saw them load her little old dog up and take him to the pound. I called to inquire and found out that he never made it out. I had asked if I could have him but they told me no and the shelter told me that I was too old to adopt an animal. Well, not in so many words but when someone says to you that a little dog had more energy than I might be able to handle, it’s the same thing.
My son passed away four years ago after a brief but massive heart attack and then last year my daughter starting having severe headaches and I lost her just after Christmas. Neither of them had any children. Now, I have no family other than my two old cats. I have written out direction that when I die, I want my cats cremated and buried with me. Sound mean, perhaps but – I would rather they go with me than be thrown into some cold, uncaring shelter where they will never find a home because they are old and no one will want them.
Besides all of that I want to tell you about my neighbor who just died because her story is one that seems to the story of almost all elderly people around the world. At least it has been as far as I have seen.
Mildred or Mills as I called her was 81 years old. In her younger days she worked as server in a small home town restaurant while being a homemaker, wife and mother. She felt that women should have their own income, identity and a place she could go to meet people and be sociable.
Her husband worked in a factory and was very supportive of her ideals and outlook on how she thought things she should be. On the times that she worked nights, he took care of the kids, prepared the meals and even helped with chores around the house. In those days, that was a rare thing indeed because many men felt that all of those things were women’s work and they would not do any of it. Not Andrew. He dove right in to gardening, cleaning, reading to the kids and making sure they washed behind their ears and brushed their teeth after their baths.
Now Mills loved animals and could not stand to see one homeless and hungry. She was always bringing home strays and little ones and Andrew would get a bit upset but he never told her no. He knew she would do her best to take care of them until she could find them a good home.
Once the kids were grown, Andrew ended up getting sick. He spent more time in bed then he did out of it. He lost a lot of weight and became very weak. In less then a year he couldn’t get out of bed at all. Mills cut down on her hours at work and before that year was out, Andrew was gone. The doctors never knew what ailed him but they were certain that he never would have survived no matter what. He was just too weak.
Mills really dove into rescuing animals after she lost Andrew. I would often go with her and help her. We both loved animals and we both loved helping them.
When my daughter got sick and came to stay with me so I could take care of her, Mills came over every single day to offer to help in anyway that she could.
BowTie was a tiny little Pomeranian that she found all taped up in a box. It was pouring rain outside and she was on her way home from the drug store when she almost ran over a box that someone had thrown out.
That poor little dog was soaked, skinny and scared. I saw her pull up and I went to my front porch to holler and ask if everything was okay. She told me what had happened and I grabbed my umbrella and went over to her house. She had him all wrapped up in a towel and was patting him dry when I came through the door.
Never could understand how people could be so cruel but, they can be.
She got him all dried, hugged and set up in a baby’s playpen. She always did that because she thought it made them feel safe and secure and it kept them from getting into everything on their first night in a new place. She grabbed him some food and fresh water and then we could sit down and think of a name for him.
He had this odd shaped spot on the front of him under his neck that looked like a little bow tie and that is how he got his name. We both said it at the same time.
A month went by and Mills had no luck finding Bowtie a new home. A lot of older people love little dogs but nobody seemed to want to love him so Mills decided that fate wanted her to have that little dog.
He turned out to be a really good dog too. He barked if anyone got close to the house and he made good company for her. He walked with her to the mail box and to my house and he even sat on her lap when she drove to the grocery store. She really loved him.
Well, when it was her turn to get sick she told me she was worried what would happen to Bowtie and I told her that I would take him if something happened to her before me. She even put it in writing that he was to come to me. He knew me as well as he knew her. He even stayed with me while she hospitalized before she passed away.
My memories and a few pictures are all that I have left of Mills and Bowtie and I hope that when I go my wishes are carried out so that my little ones will not have end up in the hands of people that just don’t care.
Doris K 80 years old.
