Why Do The Good Die Young?

[amyable]

I don't know whether this is the right place to post this message as the deceased wasn't a bird. I feel strongly though that as he was an animal/bird lover, you will understand.

I volunteer at a bird 'sanctuary' every week purely because I was so shocked at the appalling lack of care I found when I took an injured Magpie there five years ago.

One day in December I went in as usual, and for once was amazed at the change in the place. It was clean, tidy and all the birds had food and clean water to hand. Some of the pens had been repaired where squirrels had damaged them, and new perches had been placed around to give the birds some interest. The food shed had been scrubbed and organised.

I happened to bump into one of the nicer lads that work there on my way out and commented on this. It turned out he had a younger brother who lived up North but had come to visit for the weekend. He was only sixteen, but was already studying as he wanted to become qualified to work with birds and wildlife.
He visited the 'sanctuary' while his brother was working and said to him 'how can they keep these birds in this condition'.
So he set to work with the time he had and made this incredible difference in just two days on his own.

His brother had told me he'd been suffering with leukaemia but was in remission and carrying on with his studies.

Yesterday I went in a usual and bumped into his brother. In passing I joked about needing him to visit again as the place needed some more repairs.

I was shocked when he told me his brother had passed away suddenly two weeks ago. The leukaemia had returned and he wasn't able to recover from a massive infection.

We hear so much at the moment about the youngsters who have no aims in life and just go out and cause trouble, and here was a lovely caring lad whose one ambition was to work with wildlife and make a difference to their world, and he has been taken before he could do this.

His brother told me one little story that obviously gave him and his family some small comfort. He had a friend that had a pet budgerigar. It had started to loose it's feathers and was obviously not well. He had nagged the friend to take it to the vets for help, but he hadn't bothered.
On the night he died, the bird died too. His brother likes to think he took it with him.

I'm afraid I don't even know this lad's name and had never actually met him, but he made a big impression on me in such a short time by just caring enough to want to help the birds at the 'sanctuary'.

I hope he has a purpose where he has gone on to now, and I'd like to think he is at the end of the 'Rainbow Bridge', to welcome all our little friends that pass before us.

Bless his short life and his family that mourn him. xxx

Janet