In Memory of a Turtle

Friday afternoon Brooke and I were in the kitchen and Amanda came in from the back yard sobbing, "Gina (Geana) is dead!" We went outside thinking perhaps the turtle had just crawled up inside her shell and would not come out. Amanda then told us she found Gina upside down near the edge of the pen. It seems she crawled up on a brick and got turned on her back. The turtles usually turn themselves over when this happens, but Gina was missing a foot and was not as "mobile" as the other turtles. It seems this time she was not able to turn herself over and the sun got to the less protected bottom of her shell. She was indeed dead.

While Amanda cried and recalled what good turtle Gina was, I dug a hole and we buried her. Amanda wrote a story and a song (below) to remember Gina and then placed this "headstone" on her grave.


"Geana was a great turtle although she probably was sick, a great turtle like her should not die. I wrote a song for her."

Geana was a great turtle
for in my heart you are still here
You are still here.