![]() I couldn’t help but wonder what the remaining six would think if we lost Jody. I couldn’t imagine their grief if we were to lose her. A rush of thoughts and images raced through my mind.įirst and foremost, I thought of her family. I had a vivid picture of Jody lying on her side, motionless and I thought, at that time, she had passed away. When I read yesterday’s post and came across the third paragraph stating “Jody was found not moving in one of the front rooms on her side of the building.”, I instantly slammed my computer closed. Thank you to all the people who have loved and honored her all these years. Like others, I’m grateful for the wonderful life she had in her time with her friends, human and chimp, at the sanctuary and that she was graced with a life that could be totally hers. I also think it is Jody’s pic (someone correct me if I’m wrong) of her looking enraptured by a bunch of lilacs wide-eyed and with a big smile on her face from a year or more ago. Many are the same that you shared with us of her being totally herself. I pulled up many of the pics I’ve put on my phone from the daily blog of Jody’s antics, especially outdoors, carrying an array of goodies she’s proudly gathered and looking quite smug about it. I’m also a Thich Nhat Hanh devotee and find the words you shared with us, Diana, to be both comforting and deeply moving. I’ve needed until now today to express words through my tears of this first loss among the chimps who began CSNW, unless there was someone I didn’t know about who was among the first rescues. ![]() Their existence and their stories are important. We will greatly miss her physical presence, and we will continue to work to make Jody and all of the chimpanzees at the sanctuary live on. Because of this blog, she is present in people far away who have never met her, and people who perhaps today are just meeting her for the first time by reading this. She is within everyone who has known her. That is the painfully difficult part of grieving. We will not see Jody in the chimp house today or any day following today. ![]() This idea is what I keep thinking about this morning. Life itself is possible.” He explains the concept of inter-being: because everything is connected, all things are constantly influencing each other and therefore are not separate. ![]() He writes, “Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. One is the notion, the reality, of impermanence. There are so many lessons within his writing to contemplate. I imagine that we will be sharing more about this later, as it was beautiful to witness them, in their own ways, say goodbye.Ī friend, Thyra Rutter ( Arte for Elephants), who I became connected to when she reached out a few years ago about donating her drawing of Jody below, recently recommended Thich Nhat Hanh’s book, No Death, No Fear, which I bought immediately after seeing her post about the book. After she passed, we were able to give her chimpanzee family the opportunity to be with her body. Jody was an incredible friend and, in many ways, the center of her social group. We made this video about Jody six years ago, and I have watched it multiple times since last night. It has been such an honor and privilege to have been able to share the last almost fifteen years of Jody’s life through the lens of hope, love, and home at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. These circumstances of her passing were in stark contrast to the decades she spent as a biomedical research subject, which we outline on her biography page. In an even more profound way, she was surrounded by the love from all of you who were thinking of her. Physically, she was surrounded by people – in human and chimpanzee form – who loved her deeply. I’m so sorry to share that Jody passed away last night (see yesterday’s blog post).
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