By Pastor Mark Hopper

Pastor Mark Hopper

My wife and I have enjoyed the companionship of a loyal friend for many years. Her name was Molly.Our adult children found Molly at the local animal shelter at Christmas time, 15 years ago.  She was huddled and shaking in the corner of a cage with several other dogs.   They brought her home without asking for our permission.  We really didn’t need a dog.  Our kids had moved out and they were either working or in college.  But, they thought we would be lonely.  So they got us a dog.

Molly was about a year old when she entered our lives.  She won our hearts immediately. She continued to enrich our lives for the next 15 years.

We had a daily ritual of taking a 15 to 20 minute walk around our block every morning and every evening.  Rain or shine, summer or winter, we went for our walks.

When grandkids came to our house, Molly was kind and gentle.  She was so excited to see these little people come for a visit, and they were glad to see her, too.

But Molly’s health began to fail over the past 12 months.  She didn’t have the strength to go for walks around the block.  It was a lot of effort for her to just walk out to the mailbox. As her appetite declined, she lost weight and strength.  It was sad to see her struggle to get to her feet.  We knew her days were numbered.

Although she never said a word, she communicated so much through her wagging tail and barks of enthusiasm and excitement.  We knew what she was thinking by the look in her eyes and tilt of her head.

Words cannot describe how much we loved and enjoyed our faithful friend, Molly. She added so much to our lives.  She will be missed.

Pastor Mark Hopper is from the Evangelical Free Church of Diamond Bar, 3255 South Diamond Bar Ave. Sunday services are 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. For more information, call (909) 594-7604 or visit http://www.efreedb.org.