Requiescat en pace Bello

Scene 1 : Race Day

Reporter: Hello Sally, yet another win for Bello. Sally: Yeah, I am so excited and we have already started the training for the coming Derby. Reporter: so what I hear is that Bello actually never lost a race since 2consecutive years,.. what is the secret, is it the training, or the nourishment or the daily regime, what is the mystery behind this unending and catastrophic success. Sally: Unending ok, but catastrophic .. Really, I am not sure if that word suits for Bello. Reporter: what I meant to say is that your horse is a favorite to the people and because of which all most every body bets on Bello and the book makers had a heavy loss last year. Sally: (laughing out loud). Oh my God I never had any bad intention, I guess Bello likes to win. I guess its in his blood, given the lineage he is from. Reporter: ok now coming back to the question, what is the secret of this success? Sally: its neither the training, nor the daily regime; its a special bond of love between me and Bello. Reporter: wow, now thats interesting, (looking back towards the camera) so ladies and gentleman here we are with the winning horse Bello and its owner Sally. Sally going towards Bello

Sally: hey buddy so you did it again, ha. I am so proud of you. Ok lets get going back home. Dad will be so happy to see you back and that too with the winning trophy. Jack please take Bello for a bath and than we will head home.

Sally driving her wheel chair back to the lounge area. Gets a call on her cell phone. Sally : yeah Jack, what happened.. calm down, I dont understand what you are saying, how can he just collapse, did you feed him anything, ok ok, just get him to the vets, I am on my way. Sally calling her father Sally : Dad you need to come here right now, Bello collapsed and Jack is taking him to the vets. I dont know what happened to him.

Scene 2: people surrounding Bello and doctor trying to check Bello

Dr.: please, please, move aside, let me have a look. Please sir you need to empty this place and let me do my job. Sally: Doctor please tell me nothing bad happened to him Dr.: madam, I am trying as much as I can After the doctor is finished diagnosing, coming back to Sally Dr.: I am sorry Sally; Bello is dead, looks like he has suffered a massive heart attack. Sally: but this cannot be possible, we feed him the best and he is in the best shape, he never had a disease and his lineage is one of the best, not a single of his lineage died like that, I am sorry but I refuse to accept this that he died of a heart attack Dr.: I understand, if you want a second opinion, you can, but all I can say is that Bello is dead. We had a similar case back than at 1984 when Kentucky Derby winner Swale died, a perfectly healthy horse within an hour after a workout, drops dead. I can do necropsy, but it will still be the same. Nothing changes now. Sally: (crying and hugging her father) dad what am I going to do now, see Bello is dead, please tell me dad this is all a bad dream and when I wake up, I will see Bello running around the ranch. Father: stop my child stop, be strong, I cannot give you any false hopes, but Bello is indeed dead. You must understand Sally, someday he had to go. Sally: but why so early, why? (Holding herself and wiping her tears) dad I want to have a memorial for Bello and I want to give the Eulogy, so that the entire world knows who Bello really was. Father: yes my child, we will, yes

Scene 4: The Memorial Day. People have gathered and are seated. Reporters are gathered in a corner with mikes and cameras Reporters chatting 1st: this is going to be a huge story 2nd: yeah I am hoping a raise with this story 3rd: hey guys there she is, Sally is coming. Other horse owners speaking in hushed voices 1st: I am happy that the horse is dead, at least it will give us some opportunity to win, I was already going into so many losses 2nd: how can you be so heartless, at least show some empathy for him. Reverend: Jesus never promised to protect us from the storms of life. What he did promise was simple and powerful- to be with us through the storm. The challenge is- will we let him? Romans 14:7-9 None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. We have Sally who will be giving the eulogy. Sally: thank you Reverend Joseph. (Remembering something smiles) I never knew about horses, till I met Bello. I remember those days of my adolescence, the days when its always a girls night out, the days when we would make bracelets out of wild flowers for us, those were the days when me and my friends were in Italy. We would sip the finest wine from the vineyards, would flirt with the cutest Italian boys. My dad who is the 4 th generation in our family to breed some of the finest horses, just found out a great Sanfratellano breed pony. Sadly the pony was for sale as the sire and the dam both died in a tragic accident while getting transported. While I was hiking above Corvara & Badia in the South Tyrol I got a call from dad to come to this small Italian village named Messina. I was not that interested in the horse but I took it as an opportunity to visit this city on the island of Sicily. As I was about to reach I had a fatal road accident. I still remember the day when I gained consciousness in the hospital and I was not able to feel my legs. It was weird at the beginning than it started becoming very depressing. I knew the days of my freedom are over. I am now a bird who is not in a cage but with broken wings waiting for the days to pass by. I knew everything was over for me. Night after nights I prayed to God to either let me go peacefully or let me live peacefully. My whole body was becoming a burden for me. I was at the tip of this hill where our ranch was, I have made up my mind to push my hand driven wheel chair down the hill, end the very lie that I am living. Suddenly I heard a light sighing of a horse, I was startled at first, thinking that one of the trainers must have seen me and has come with his horse to save me. I turned around to see Bello who was just a pony still, staring right at me. We bonded in an instant, we knew both lost something, I lost both my legs, Bello lost his parents. Who has the greatest tragedy? I pushed my wheel chair towards Bello, hugged him and cried. Till date I dont know whether I cried because he saved me from killing myself or I cried because I am helpless and depressed or did I cry that I was left alone or did I cry that I have found a friend in Bello. We cannot hold on to past, as it has already left, what we can really do is cherish the memories. These memories do not haunt me, they dont give me pain, what they give me is immense zeal and energy to move forward. Bello was a friend, a family, a teacher and a ray of hope. He was there when nobody would be there, he understood the pain what nobody felt, he taught me to be strong even with having the least, he was my angel guiding me towards the vessel of hope. Today I might have so many things to say to him, so many gratitude to

express, but all I can say today .. (a long pause) Requiescat en pace Bello.