A Thread That Joins Us

Today, I cried at school. It's happened before, and I'm sure it will happen again. But this wasn't related to my grades, my classmates, a patient, or even a human. I read this story about a gorilla whose 3 month old baby died. She's been carrying him around with him ever since. I hate to
include such a gruesome picture from the story, but I'm going to.

Her baby is on her back (where it seems she often carries him) and another gorilla's baby is in her hands.

I'm almost at a loss of words describe how much this affected me, and how deeply it resonated. I know some would say that animals don't have feelings, or a soul, or the capabilities of emotion that would come near what we have as humans, but I think that the power of motherhood and the sense of loss here clearly challenges those boundaries.

I feel as though she is looking at the camera, saying "Here is what I had, here is what I lost...and here is what I wish I still could still have."

I don't know about the long-term memory of gorillas, but I'm sure that she'll continue to carry that baby on her back long after his little body has been removed.