This has been an extremely difficult week for our family. On Wed, Oct 3rd, we received news of the passing of a dear, dear friend, after a long battle with the disease Alzheimer’s.

Rick is not only DH Lee’s BFF in college (bonding on the football field, the frat house, and then careers in the military), he’s also the husband of my girlfriend (we all attended the same college), and has truly been like an uncle to my children.

The boys never got a chance to meet “Uncle Rick.” Harley and Leo have only known and loved their “Aunt Ann” for she is an avid “Groovy Goldendoodle” subscriber, and loves to “mess” with the boys whenever she comes to the house.

On Saturday, we decided to “drop in” on Ann and the rest of the family. It was never our intent to stay long, so we grabbed the boys, rolled down the windows and motored on over…

Now even though we take the boys practically “everywhere”, I wasn’t quite sure how Leo would act inside a strange house, since he has a tendency to be “Mr. Shy Doodle” around strangers.

As I suspected Ann welcomed our arrival, and once inside, something felt “mystical.” It was as if both Harley and Leo had this parallel connection and understood hearts were broken, and people were grieving. Almost as if rehearsed, they did their “doodle best” to bring love and comfort to all that were there…

Talk about perfect little angels, they were remarkable. If they weren’t sitting with me…

They were staying with Lee..

Or visiting with other family members…

But in true “doodle fashion”, they always seem to find a way to bring out a hearty laugh – that turns out to be good for the soul!

When Ricks daughter (our niece) Anrika, decided to eat some yogurt, much to her surprise Harley “plopped” down, upright, still as a statue waiting for her to share…

I explained that most mornings, they “help” me with my yogurt, and if she wanted, once she had enough she could share the rest with them. They will not bother you, but they aren’t going to go away either, just in case you change your mind…

They are very good with eating from a plastic spoon, Harley takes little licks…

While Leo actually takes the entire spoon into his mouth and  when you see it again, it is clean as a whistle…

We ended up “visiting” for much longer than we imagined, partly because DH Lee is a talker (smile). Yet a large part was because somehow, someway, my two boys brought just a few hours of  love where it was so appreciated.

I hadn’t seen this beautiful smile for a few days, and it radiated the room…

Rev. Richard C. Corbin will be missed beyond measure, for he was such a loving and giving person. The boys may not have known him, but on Saturday they touched the hearts of those he loved the most, if only for a few hours, and it was an awesome thing to witness.

Rest well Rick, you are already missed…

Thanks so much for reading…