Daily Mail – by ANDREW CHESTERTON
This is the touching moment a giraffe bid a sad farewell to a dying worker who had spent his entire adult life cleaning the animal’s enclosure at a Dutch zoo.
The 54-year-old maintenance worker, who has terminal cancer, asked that his hospital bed be wheeled into the giraffe enclosure at Rotterdam’s Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo.
In a heartbreaking scene, one of the giraffes then approached the man, known only as Mario, and gave him a tender kiss goodbye.
Heartbreaking: The touching moment a giraffe said goodbye to a terminally ill worker at a Dutch zoo
Special bond: The giraffe approached the man’s hospital bed, and appeared to give the 54-year-old a kiss goodbye
‘These animals recognised him, and felt that (things aren’t) going well with him,’ Kees Veldboer, founder of the Ambulance Wish Foundation – which transported Mario to the zoo – told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.
‘(It was) a very special moment. You saw him beaming.’
Mario, who’s mentally disabled, then asked for a moment to say goodbye to his colleagues at the zoo, where he spent the vast majority of his adult life.
Last goodbyes: Mario, who is mentally disabled, then asked for a moment to say goodbye to his colleagues at the zoo, where he spent the vast majority of his adult life
Touching: Last year the charity took a terminally-ill 86-year-old man back to his farm in Oss, Holland, to say goodbye to his ponies
‘It was very nice that we were able to work on the last wish of this man,’ Mr Veldboer said.
The Ambulance Wish Foundation is a charity whose volunteers specialise in taking non-mobile terminally ill patients fulfill their dying wishes.
The organization was founded in 2007 by Veldboer, who also drives the company’s fleet of ambulances to take patients wherever they wish to go.
The ambulances are specifically designed with long windows so patients could watch the world go by while they were being transported.
Last year the charity took a terminally-ill 86-year-old man back to his farm in Oss, Holland, to say goodbye to his ponies.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2585783/Final-farewell-The-heartbreaking-moment-giraffe-gives-dying-zoo-worker-kiss-goodbye.html#ixzz2wcoqtvkB
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Real awesome post Angel. Yes that is a real good one Angel.
Yes, animals are real awesome creatures. People just got to figure out that we are no beter than so called animals – we are animals too.
Geeze Angel, this article reminds me of how the wild animals act around here on my 5 acres – they all get along even though they are supposed to be natural enemies, yea that is partly why my place is called witch mountain. Yes it is realy nice to be here.
When man or animal dies, the breakdown of the body’s organs give off an ammonia odor in the breath that signals the end is near.
It’s nice to see everyone, man and animal, got closure. A very touching story indeed.
. . .
A nice story and a bummer at the same time,great thing these folks who transport patients are doing.