Staying Fit
Courtesy Emma Patterson
Emma Patterson, 75, is not known for being an emotional person.
But when she recalls memories of Rocky, her beloved Rottweiler — like his love of spinach and vegetables, his doggie dreams, or the way he would give her his paw when she felt sad — Emma's normally steady New York accent begins to crack.
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"Rocky was just always there for us,” she says, taking a sip out of her Rottweiler mug, in the short film The Bond. “He knew when you were upset."
The documentary, produced by Patterson's daughter-in-law Sarina Di Mento and son Richard Patterson, both filmmakers, captures the final goodbye that Emma and her husband, Ricardo, said to their beloved pet a decade and a half after his death.
Filmed in the early days of the COVID-19 quarantine, the emotional piece explores the profound and enduring love between humans and their four-legged companions — and the depth of the grief that can come from losing that bond.
Even Emma's grandchildren were moved to see the former head emergency room nurse express herself in such sentimental terms. “It was an opportunity to learn a different part of this woman, who's our mother, who had this experience with a pet 15 years ago,” says Di Mento. “It was so raw, so real."
The short piece chronicles Emma's life with Rocky for about two decades, from the time she adopted him at six months old to the moment — 15 years after his passing — she and Ricardo finally spread his ashes on the shores of a serene, tree-lined lake near their home in Danbury, Connecticut.
Emma Patterson and her beloved pet Rocky.
Courtesy Emma Patterson
A way to express grief over a pet's death
Emma had long struggled with saying goodbye to Rocky. For years she had kept the Rottweiler's ashes in a box, but she could never find the right time or place to scatter them.
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