Most people, when they are on their deathbeds, long to spend time with their loved ones. For one Vietnam veteran, Roberto Gonzalez, two of those loved ones just happened to be horses.
Hospitals don’t have visiting hours for horses, and you can’t bring a horse into a hospital room like you might with a dog or cat. However, that didn’t stop the hospital staff or Gonzelez’s determined family. First, the horses, Sugar and Ringo, were driven 150 miles to the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Next, the man was wheeled outside to meet with his old friends.
Surrounded by family, the man lay in bed as his two horses gathered there as well. He was unable to speak, but one of the horses bent down and nuzzled him. The look on his face told his loved ones everything they needed to know about how much the moment meant to him.
Even more significantly, the man had been wounded on May 21, 1970. He met with his horses on May 21 as well albeit decades later.
According to his wife, Gonzalez was of of the only paralyzed license horse trainers in the country. He is probably also one of the only people who has ever been visited by horses near the end of their lives.
Since Gonzalez was able to see his horses, his family has been trying to spread the word to others that many things may be possible to fulfill the wishes of dying loved ones. After all, no one would have dreamed of bringing a horse to a hospital, and yet Roberto Gonzalez’s wish came true.