Giraffe gently kisses a dying friend who worked at the zoo for many years…

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/20/giraffe-touching-goodbye-photo_n_5001631.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

“A dying cancer patient who worked at a Dutch zoo returned to say goodbye on Wednesday. Lying in a hospital bed placed in the giraffe habitat at Rotterdam’s Diergaarde Blijdorp, the 54-year-old man, identified as only Mario, waited for the animals to approach.

In an image now breaking the Internet’s heart, one giraffe appears to understand the moment, kissing Mario.

Mario, who has a mental disability, spent nearly his entire life as a maintenance man at the zoo…”

Brings to mind an excerpt from Raymond Carver:

“And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.”