My brother and his wife had to put their 15yo dog Wilbur down last night …

I started a groupchat with Chris, Molly and Kevin to reminisce about him. Wilbur was such a big part of the fam.

Everyone is so broken up by it, including me and Kev.

Chris and Molly has kept a unicorn balloon around for a while after Imogene’s first birthday a couple months back, and they would point to it each day after and read the words underneath the unicorn to Immy, hoping she might say them back.

Today, Molly hung a portrait of Wilbur up in their house this evening. When Chris came home from picking up Imogene from my parents’ house, Imogene saw Wilbur’s picture and waved.

And she took the opportunity to say those words that her parents have been trying to teach her for a while now.

She waved to the picture of her departed old friend, and she told him —

“Shine bright.”

😭