That’s the first thing she said when Edna was asked the question: “Are you the author of the Rainbow Bridge?”
The ‘Rainbow Bridge’ has comforted millions of pet parents. Who wrote it?
For all the millions of lives “Rainbow Bridge” has touched, though, the author of the poem has remained unknown—until now. She is Edna Clyne-Rekhy, an 82-year-old Scottish artist and animal lover. Until recently, she had no idea that the poem she wrote over 60 years ago—to honour her dog, Major—had brought comfort to so many others.
“I’m absolutely stunned,” she says. “I’m still in a state of shock.”
Clyne-Rekhy’s authorship likely would have been lost to history were it not for the tenacious sleuthing of Paul Koudounaris, an art historian, author, and cat owner in Tucson, Arizona. Koudounaris has spent the past decade working on a book about pet cemeteries and frequently encountered references to the “Rainbow Bridge” in his research.
“Early on I started to wonder, who wrote this?” he says. It bothered him that “a text with monumental importance to the world of animal mourning” remained uncredited.
The poem’s popularity, he discovered, was launched in February 1994, when a reader from Grand Rapids, Michigan, sent a copy of “Rainbow Bridge” that they had received from their local humane society to the advice column Dear Abby. “If you print this, you had better warn your readers to get out their hankies,” they wrote.
Abby did print the poem—and confessed to shedding “a tear or two”—but she also pointed out to her 100 million readers that the author’s name was regrettably missing. “If anyone in my reading audience can verify authorship, please let me know.”
No one came forward, but after that, “Rainbow Bridge” seemed to be everywhere. Starting in 1995, Koudounaris found records of 15 separate claims filed under the title “Rainbow Bridge” with the United States Copyright Office. He compiled a list of around 25 names he found with any connection to the poem and, one by one, looked into each and crossed them off as possible authors until he was left with just one: Edna Clyne-Rekhy.
Mystery solved!
Read the whole thing. (linked in the title above)
*article sent to me by dnfree
rikyrah
Awe…makes me cry right now.
Baud
@rikyrah: Yep. Cannot handle. See y’all in the next thread.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We inherited our last dog from a friend who died. After a few wonderful years, we had to have the dog put to sleep, and I comforted myself by imagining her cresting a hill, confused as to where she was, and then spotting her former owner, and running joyously toward him.
WV Blondie
Now you made me ugly-cry, damn it!
pacem appellant
I need to work today. Guess I’ll be crying instead. Edna, you are a genius.
SpaceUnit
Allow me to spoil the good vibes of this thread. Republicans in Florida want to require bloggers who write about DeSantis or other top officials to register with the state or face fines. Not sure if this would affect our own BC here at the site but damn.
Link to WFLA
Seriously, damn.
skerry
When we unexpectedly lost a cherished cat years ago, our vet gave a copy of a Rainbow Bridge book to my small children. So touching.
pacem appellant
@SpaceUnit: Garbage. And unenforceable. But chilling nonetheless.
japa21
@SpaceUnit: Seems to me that would be in direct violation of the 1st amendment.
Back to subject of thread. Some people say it is manipulative and sappy. I doubt if any of those who say so ever owned a pet.
japa21
@SpaceUnit:
Just read the article. Betty wouldn’t be effected. Only those paid for their work. It is really to stop any journalists.
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: To honest, it is not my kind of sentimentality, but it seems to provide a lot of comfort to others so I’ll say nothing against it.
eclare
What a sweet story, thank you!
Old School
@Baud:
Now we know how to plan a surprise party for Baud so he won’t find out about it.
CaseyL
I do love the Rainbow Bridge but can’t help wondering what happens when you have a whole lifetime of companion animals waiting for you, some of whom don’t like one another very much.
Betty Cracker
@SpaceUnit: I’m fairly confident it’s unenforceable garbage as pacem notes at #8. But I think I’d be off the hook anyway since I don’t get paid to write about the fascist Florida governor and his SunBund Brownshirts. It is my privilege and pleasure to excoriate those motherfuckers for FREE!
PS: Sorry to be cranky and profane on a feel-good, ugly-cry thread. I will see myself out! ;-)
SpaceUnit
@japa21:
They’re Florida Republicans so I’m guessing they just want to start with the journalists. These assholes don’t have any brakes once they get going.
Mike in NC
@SpaceUnit: Almost as pathetic as the story of how Trump employed goons to watch late night TV comedians to complain if they made fun of him. He wanted to sue Disney to shut up Jimmy Kimmel, for example. He’s 76 going on 7.
trollhattan
@SpaceUnit: Does this mean so long as I declare Ron DeSantis to not be unfamiliar with the embrace of domestic animals, from outside the State of Florida, I’m in the clear?
Let me be clear I’m referencing Governor Ron DeSantis and nobody else burdened with the same name. Which would be sad. Sad, to be confused for Governor Ron DeSantis, who is not unfamiliar with the embrace of domestic animals.
Amir Khalid
@SpaceUnit:
This is inappropriate here. Save it for another post.
Frankensteinbeck
Until a few years ago, Peter S. Beagle had no idea he had a fan base and people still loved The Last Unicorn. An agent told him, and he was shocked. That… led to kind of a mess with the agent, but the point is, for decades he thought his works were forgotten and nobody cared, when The Last Unicorn is still a huge cult classic.
Alison Rose
is that scottish
Frankensteinbeck
@Alison Rose:
If it were Scottish there would be more chs. That is clearly Finnish.
The Moar You Know
logic: if heaven does not include my animals, then it is hell, and I want no part of that.
eclare
@The Moar You Know: Perfect!
SiubhanDuinne
@SpaceUnit:
JFC. These fucking Nazis outdo themselves every day.
From a quick read-through, I can’t tell if the law would apply only to Florida-based bloggers (terrible enough), or any bloggers anywhere who cover DeStupid and his minions. Because I’m picturing the State of Florida coming after Balloon Juice, Wonkette, Digby, and so many, many more.
N/M. Answered above. Still makes me incandescent with rage 😡
SpaceUnit
@trollhattan:
More specifically, goats and pigs.
CaseyL
@The Moar You Know: There’s a Twilight Zone episode built around that idea.
I can’t recall it in detail, but a youngish man is walking down a country road with his dog, and comes to realize that he has died – along with his dog, apparently – and is now walking on his way to the afterlife.
He comes to a choice of paths, and a helpful other fellow is there to guide him (“Yup: Heaven is that-a-way”). Almost convinces him to take a certain path, but then the helpful fellow says the dog isn’t allowed to go with him. So the young man says, no thanks, I’m not going anywhere my dog isn’t welcome.
Turns out, of course, that the helpful fellow was a demon, trying to trick him into Hell.
WaterGirl
@Alison Rose: Oh, dear. That was me leaving a placeholder. I scheduled the post for 4pm, and planned to get back to it before then to add that info and possibly schedule it for a later date.
But this day being like most days, only with extra obligations, I forgot all about it until I refreshed the previous thread and saw this link to this post.
sigh. oh well, not the end of the world
Also, unrelated, I did not mean to make anyone cry. I thought you guys would be interested in the story of how some guy found the anonymous author of something we talk about here.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
As Baud would say: Nominated!
SpaceUnit
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yeah, as other commenters have pointed out this would be very difficult to enforce with anonymous bloggers. But in-state journalists who use their actual names? That could be a bit more dicey.
The sheer fascist chutzpa of it is mind-blowing.
M31
@Frankensteinbeck: can’t be Finnish without a lot more double aa’s in there
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: I figured something like that :P
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
It is marked as an Open Thread.
SiubhanDuinne
@SpaceUnit:
I honestly don’t care that it would be essentially unenforceable, or that the courts (yes, even in Florida) would probably declare it unconstitutional. The very fact that an elected legislator saw fit to draft and introduce such a bill is so abhorrent to me, I am genuinely seeing the words on this phone through a red mist of rage.
M31
there were reports a few years ago that Pope Francis had consoled a boy whose dog had died that yes, pets can go to heaven, but it turned out he didn’t say that (bad reporting, it seems, which was of course complained about by traditionalists and latched onto for shallow self-serving reasons by PETA (lol like they’d ever do anything else))
Francis still has time to redeem himself, so we’ll see
M31
and I’d never read the original Rainbow Bridge story — I’d assumed the pets go over the rainbow bridge by themselves, but no, they go to the meadow and wait for you, then you all go together, so crossing the rainbow bridge doesn’t happen when the pet dies, it’s only when YOU die
so what happens if you and a partner have a beloved pet that dies, then one of you dies first, do you hit the bridge without the partner? or do you (human 1) get to wait in the meadow until human 2 shows up?
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: It’s heaven so they have learned to be chill and get along.
But then, some of the pets would have to have undergone major personality changes, would they even be the same being with such different traits?
I wonder similar things about people being reunited with their loved ones. How do love triangles work in heaven?
Heaven is an interesting metaphor and poetic device.
Kirk
@Frankensteinbeck: Nah, the lack of vowels clearly makes it Welsh.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Same!
WaterGirl
Scottish, Finnish, Welsh. All of those are preferable to my fuck up!
jackmac
@SpaceUnit: Not surprising. Clearly find a First Amendment violation here (you know, the Amendment that Republicans, other MAGAts and gun nuts skip right over to focus on their more important one — the Second).
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
We’ll go bail for ya, Betty!
pat
@SpaceUnit:
Well so much for the First Amendment.
Heil Ron!!!
Bill Arnold
@Frankensteinbeck:
I read that a few years ago, after a reference in a coded comment to me. It’s an interesting little story. Did not know Beagle did not know.
Rich2506
This protest took place a while ago, but here it is!
http://prawnworks.net/rlg/2023/Anniversary-invasion-Ukraine-230224.html
Andrew Abshier
@japa21: DVM here, and I say it’s irredeemable glurge that I refuse to include with our practice’s sympathy cards. Since our practice is very small, it’s possible for us to add heartfelt, personal messages which I think have much more positive impact than inserting a poem. It is very much possible to love animals and our pets and not like this poem!
PST
@Ohio Mom:
And second marriages? Asking for a friend.
cain
@SiubhanDuinne: DeSantis should be very careful where that goes. Cuz I’m more than happy to make Fox News “register with the federal govt” – pull that shit motherfucker and it goes both ways.
cain
@PST: well, you have to give up christianity – since everything is now “open marriage”
WaterGirl
@Andrew Abshier:
I don’t find comfort in it either, but so many people love it that I thought folks would be interested in the story.
I suspect we all get comfort from different things. For me, this quote got me through the loss of my first kitty love, my kitty soulmate.
Peke Daddy
@CaseyL:
They will be too busy greeting and loving you.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
going on7?
I do believe you give him way too much credit.
Jay C
I probably should not have read this post, since we had to send one of our beloved companions Across The Bridge this week: Edina Rose (Seal Pt Himalayan, and an absolute sweetheart), aged just 12. Still hurts to look at pictures (since cat pix are mostly what we have on our devices). We got a kitten as a friend for her last summer (after sadly losing another “senior” cat), so we are not catless. But it still never makes up for the losses.
*SIgh
Heidi Mom
@Jay C: I’m very sorry for your loss. Sounds like a wonderful cat.
WaterGirl
@Jay C: I’m so sorry.
eclare
@Jay C: My condolences on your kitty.
Heidi Mom
@WaterGirl: When Heidi left us in April of last year, a former neighbor with whom I’ve stayed in touch on Facebook said “Don’t worry, Dr. Reagan is managing things at the Rainbow Bridge, and he’ll take care of her.” Dr. Reagan was the neighbor’s dearly beloved GSD mix who had passed away about a year earlier, and whom we had known when he was a puppy. I replied that it was a comfort knowing that Heidi was in the good paws of Dr. Reagan. I don’t think that either one of us believes in the actual existence of a Rainbow Bridge, but it provided a language for the sharing of grief.
RSA
This is lovely. Thanks. I’ve never seen it before
ETA: I will say this, though:
WTF? Is it an American trait to take credit for someone else’s work? I’m glad (poetic) justice prevailed.
Dr. Fungus
Good timing! I put my 15 year old Pomeran-raccoon mix, Lobo down Sunday evening.
He was bloated with congestive heart failure and liver, so I know I did the right thing and spared him the worst of the pain, saying goodbye on a relatively good day. But Kylie, my Aussie, and I still miss the little munchkin.
Heidi Mom
@Dr. Fungus: So sorry for the loss of a good dog.
eclare
@Dr. Fungus: So sorry about Lobo.
Gvg
@SiubhanDuinne: I want to know if any licensed lawyers voted for it. I would try to get their licenses revoked. Opponents in next election should attack them for breaking their oath of office to defend the constitution. This is not a slight disagreement with what something in the constitution means, it’s an attempt to overturn it.
Also everyone should be sure and call then babies too immature for any office.
Manyakitty
@The Moar You Know: just so. There’s no real Jewish belief in an afterlife, but if there is one and my cats aren’t there, I d rather not.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: we all need a good cleansing cry now and then. Was just talking about how much I miss my Schrodinger today with a friend who recently said goodbye to her very best boy George. ♥️
Manyakitty
@Andrew Abshier: that was also my vet’s approach. She’s very pragmatic, which I appreciate. She followed up almost a year later by encouraging me to adopt a tiny kitten fostered in her practice.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: not sure where you stand on this, but I SWEAR Schrodinger comes to visit once in a while. I thought I was crazy when I felt him jump up on the bed (no other cats in sight). Once, when Asimov was still a tiny bebé, I felt the jump and Asimov TOTALLY puffed out. Tells me he felt it too, whatever it was.
Manyakitty
@Jay C: so very sorry. Sending all the love.
zadig
I just hope our pets don’t confuse that rainbow bridge with the the Bifrost, the rainbow bridge to Asgard. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifr%C3%B6st) Although they’ll all look adorable in little horned helmets.
WaterGirl
@Heidi Mom: Exactly.
WaterGirl
@Manyakitty: I can totally believe that.