Marley and Me

I will never know what makes this video so special. Is it John & Jenny, the kids, the dog, or the snow? Or is it just the fact that everything in their life starts changing from this very day.

I could so relate to "the list" that Jenny had in the beginning. All of us have a list. It's just that some of us are vocal about it while the others keep denying its existence. John and Jenny get married, move to a new city, get jobs but their life actually begins when they get Marley home. Marley, the dog or the devil who took the face of a dog? HAHA! It was hilarious to watch Marley getting expelled from "the obedient school." I laughed when Marley tried to crash through screen doors or run away with Jenny's undergarment or start eating everything he could from sofas to jewelry but my heart went out to him when I saw him getting restless and scared in the thunderstorm. Marley was a mess, a beautiful mess, and I don't think he could have found better parents than John and Jenny. Perhaps they needed him too. I was just sitting on the other side of the screen watching them giving each other so much love. I wanted to be in there too. But I am no dog person. I might have been scared of Marley. Though I do believe that Marley would have loved me so much that I would have ended up becoming a "Marley person."

I have never had a pet so I don't really know how it works with them. It was heartbreaking to see John and Jenny lose their first baby. But the only solace was that Jenny had Marley to hug it out. She hugged him and kept crying. Marley was there, as always. 

Marley was also there when Jenny got Patrick, their first child, home. It was funny to see John having that little chat with Marley where he is asking him to not freak out seeing the kid and at the same time expecting himself also to do the same. Marley did not freak out, he jumped at the newborn. One of my favorite scene in the movie is where Jenny introduces Marley to Patrick. 

Their life became even more adventurous now. John started capturing these little everyday adventures with Marley and Patrick in the newspaper column he wrote every week. His column used to be funny, silly, and sometimes just sad. Life went on. John and Jenny had their second baby, Conor, and subsequently the third, Colleen. But everything cannot be so dreamy. Jenny chose to leave her job to take care of the home, they were building together. She was still having a hard time managing the three babies and Marley. And then there comes a day when she just breaks down and asks John to take Marley away. I could feel Jenny's pain when she said so. I have seen my mom as exhausted as Jenny was in that moment. Raising a kid or a dog is hard. But I think it's also worth it. John and Jenny had some wonderful moments together with the family. Perhaps the last was the one in the video above. I took that video while watching the movie and then kept watching it again and again. I don't have a husband or a kid. I have never had a pet. I have also never been in snow but everything in that video looked just perfect. What more would anyone want from life? That day was everything that I seek. But it was the last.

Marley was old now. It was painful to see him that way. It was painful to see the kids realizing that Marley is going to die. I saw John and Jenny bring the little puppy home, then I saw them name him Marley. I also saw Marley becoming a 100-pound crazy dog. He had a good and fulfilling life. But none of this made me feel any better about what was happening. I could still not see him die. It was still harrowing to see Marley lie still in the grave while Conor and Colleen read him letters. 

In his last conversation with Marley, John said, "Listen, you know all that stuff we always said about you? What a total pain you are? The world's worst dog? Well, don't you believe it. Don't believe it for a minute. You loved us, every day, no matter what. And that's a pretty amazing thing. Look, I don't know where you're going from here, but you remember this: You're a great dog, Marley. You are a great dog." I could not do much but sob at this. Marley was indeed a great dog. He was no good boy, he was John and Jenny's Marley and you just cannot not love him. 

Goodbye clearance puppy! You had one hell of a life.