Dear Pat-

It’s so hard to believe that it has been two years today since you left. I think about you so often — all I have to do is look at my Rudy and I always see you in the background.  You would be so happy to hear that Rudy is such a great therapy dog.  I can’t tell you how many people he has made smile over the last three years.

I keep in touch with Dawn and Gil and you would also be so proud to see Hal Jam ands how much they love him.  After my sister and I had attended your memorial service, we went to Dawn and Gil’s house and it was so funny to see the two brothers playing together!  I know that the Lhasa Apso world is not the same without you.

I still miss our phone conversations — I know that I always will.  I heard on the radio today that it was snowing quite heavily today in Burlington. The Tibetan mountains came to my mind when I heard that.  I am sure that you are roaming the mountains in Heaven with all your beautiful Lhasas.

Peace and love to you, my dear friend.

Love,

Nancy

I first met Pat in 1991, the year our local Detroit Lhasa Apso Club hosted the National Specialty.  It was a big event and our Club had rented several floors, the ballroom, and an outside exercise area for the dogs at a local Hilton Hotel for the event.

The first night, there was a terrible thunderstorm.  The high winds picked up a canopy I had lent the club and wrapped it around Pat’s new minivan.

The next day, hotel security approached me during the show and inquired if I owned a silver canopy. He asked me to accompany him to the room of a guest who sustained property damage from it.  He knocked on the door and I saw Pat’s lovely face for the first time.

I apologized for the fiasco, told her we had insurance to cover what occured, and that we would see that she was properly compensated for the damage to her car.

As I spoke, Pat’s already lovely facial features melted into a soft and open expression. Before all the words were out of my mouth, she was embracing me and consoling me that everything was ok.  Her forgiveness was never requested; it was pro-offered and spontaneous.

Pat and I were friends ever since.

For years later, we enjoyed telling people that we met when my property did $2000 damage to her car.  Who would have thought a friendship would be spawned from such an event!  But that was Pat!  She made a lemon of a situation into lemonade.

I miss her terribly, her lovely attitude and her lovely dogs. I can hardly wait to see her again.

Your mother was a great encouragement to me when I met her in my college days, almost thirty years ago.  A few years ago, when I visited Vermont, I actually had lunch with her, and she told me how great it was that I still remembered her after all those years.

Her legacy of loving encouragement will always stick with me.  I now live in the Harrisburg, PA, area, and the memory of her is just as vivid as ever.

We are here today to honor the memory of Patricia Aubin Collier, who was our mother, sister, friend, teacher, confidante, dog whisperer … and, of course, leash wrangler … Read more.

I had recently lost my sweet little Lhasa, Pixie, to old age when my husband first wrote to Pat to set up a visit. It was immediate love. Pat’s home was so crowded with Pixie look-a-likes I didn’t want to leave. They were the most beautiful pups I had ever seen. David was enamored too. So, we ended up with two.

We wrote to Pat weekly, with “tails” of our adventures and after a very short time “I” stopped writing all together and just let Brodie and Taji do all the talking.

Pat was my rock. Just knowing that she was on the other end of my computer “send” button made my life more manageable. I had an injury at work and a great deal of pain. I lost my mother-in-law whom I was closer to than my own mother. Four months later I lost my Dad. I could disappear into ’ventures of  life from a very different point of view than my own.

I miss her. As I healed I wrote less and less. I feel guilty about that. We visited seasonally whenever David noticed I was getting too wound up. We called it my “puppy fix.” We’d spend the day with Pat and play with all her brats and talk non-stop until it was almost too late to find our way home.

Even now I find it difficult to think of Pat without leaky eyes. I also find it very difficult to write from my own point of view and not Taji and Brodie’s. I miss her.

I was surprised to come across a number of letters and course papers in which she captured the essence of her life beautifully.

On this Mother’s Day, I offer you these recollections by our mother, in her own words.

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