Someone finally whispered what many suspected: “That was his horse.”
The man who had passed had raised it from a foal. He’d loved that animal like family — fed it, sheltered it, cared for it in sickness and in storm. For years, they’d been inseparable.
Suddenly, everything made sense.
The horse hadn’t wandered in by chance. It had felt the loss. And it had come — instinctively, faithfully — to farewell the only person it had ever truly bonded with.
But what left the deepest impression was what happened after.
When the service ended and people began to leave, the horse didn’t move. It remained beside the coffin, head bowed, still and silent.
No one tried to lead it away.
And it never left.
