The True Story Behind the World's Most Influential Pet Mourning Literature
The Rainbow Bridge is arguably the most influential piece of animal mourning literature ever written, touching millions of grieving pet owners worldwide. Yet for decades, its true author remained unknown. This is the complete story of how a 19-year-old Scottish girl's grief over her beloved dog became a global phenomenon that has comforted countless hearts.
The Origin Story: Edna and Major
Edna Clyne was nineteen years old and living in Inverness, Scotland, in 1959, when her Labrador Retriever named Major died. He was her first dog—not the family's first, but the first that had been hers alone. "He was a very special dog," she recalled decades later. "Sometimes I would just sit and talk to him, and I felt that he could understand every word I said."
The bond between Edna and Major was extraordinary. Her mother used to ask how Edna had trained Major to be so gentle and obedient, and she still laughs about the question, explaining that she had never trained him at all—it was natural between them. Many pet owners recognize this special connection, the one animal that truly understands, the one who lives as a piece of us.
The day after Major died, Edna felt a compulsion. There was something she needed to write, and while she hadn't preconceived any of it, the words were there, longing to be heard. She remembers it being a warm and wonderful feeling, like Major himself was guiding her in what to write.
The Writing of the Rainbow Bridge
Edna grabbed a nearby notebook and pulled out a piece of paper to begin writing. In her haste, she inadvertently used a page from her sister's notebook that already had writing on it. No matter—she erased her sister's words as best she could and filled half the page with her own until she was done. Then she turned the paper over and put a title on it: "Rainbow Bridge."
When she finished the original draft and crossed out a few words to swap them for others, she showed it to her mother. "My darling girl, you are very special," was the response, though her mother also pointed out that it was a bit messy and asked if she didn't want to write it out again. Edna didn't want to rewrite it—the copy with the crossed-out words was fine, true to the moment.
The Concept: A Place of Comfort and Reunion
The Rainbow Bridge, as envisioned by nineteen-year-old Edna, is a kind of limbo where deceased pets are returned to their most healthy form and frolic in newfound youth in an Elysian setting. But it is not paradise itself. Rather, it is a way station where the spirit of an animal waits for the arrival of its earthly human companion, so that they may cross the Bridge together to achieve true and eternal paradise in each other's company, never again to be parted.
The concept serves as what has been called "chicken soup for the soul"—simple comfort for grieving hearts. But it is also something much more significant.
Filling a Spiritual Gap
Those who have grown up in Western culture, especially under Christian-dominated spiritual systems, have frequently been discouraged from believing that animals have an afterlife. The standard line being that non-humans lack souls and therefore cannot enter Heaven or participate in eternity. Yet to people who have found their greatest joy in their pets, how can there be a paradise without them?
This is precisely why the Rainbow Bridge has become so popular. It serves as a kind of theological plug-in. As an elastic concept that can be applied to any faith, it provides a clearly expressed means for us to reunite with our pets in the afterlife, giving hope where a person may have been previously told there was none.
The Journey to Global Recognition
Initially, Edna shared her writing only with close family and friends. When she married Jack Rekhy, he suggested she publish it, but Edna didn't want to—telling him it was something private between herself and Major. However, she did make a few typed copies to share with people close to her, never imagining the words would go beyond that circle.
By the early 1990s, the poem had crossed the Atlantic and was being shared by animal lovers' groups in the United States. The pivotal moment came on February 20, 1994, when the Dear Abby column—with its 100 million readers—published the entire text of the Rainbow Bridge after receiving a letter from "An old softy in Grand Rapids, Michigan."
The response was overwhelming. Mailbags full of letters poured in from pet owners who had been touched, as if these words were exactly what they had been waiting all their lives to hear. The world now had the Rainbow Bridge—but the Rainbow Bridge had no known author.
The Mystery of Authorship
Dear Abby had asked readers to write in with the author's name so proper credit could be given, but none could provide it. Within five years of the Dear Abby column, the United States Copyright Office listed fifteen separate claims under the title of Rainbow Bridge, as various animal experts and grief counselors stepped forward to claim the words as their own.
Some claims were particularly creative—one book published in 1994 claimed the Rainbow Bridge was originally the work of a Native American shaman who had recited it while wearing a special storytelling mask. When told of this claim, Edna responded with a dismissive chuckle.
The True Author Revealed
Edna Clyne-Rekhy, now 82 years old, has never been without the original handwritten page on which the Rainbow Bridge was composed. It sits in a box in her attic marked "If you can't find it, it's in here." When she took it out recently to photograph it, she started to cry—the old piece of paper still carries that much emotional power for her.
She has mixed feelings about the strange journey her words have taken. While she disapproves of people trying to claim authorship and doesn't appreciate the alternate versions with changed wording, she is primarily flattered that something she wrote so long ago has resonated with such a vast number of people. The fact that it has comforted so many is the greatest possible homage to her love for Major.
Why the Rainbow Bridge Resonates
The Rainbow Bridge fills multiple emotional and spiritual needs:
Validation of Grief
The concept acknowledges that pet loss is real, significant grief worthy of comfort and hope. It validates the deep bonds formed between humans and animals.
Promise of Reunion
For those devastated by pet loss, the idea that separation is temporary—not permanent—provides profound comfort. The promise of reunion gives meaning to the pain of loss.
Restoration and Healing
The image of pets restored to perfect health, free from the pain, illness, and frailty that may have marked their final days, offers peace to owners who watched their companions suffer.
Spiritual Inclusion
In a culture where animals are often excluded from afterlife concepts, the Rainbow Bridge creates a place where the human-animal bond continues beyond death.
The Complete Rainbow Bridge Poem
As written by Edna Clyne-Rekhy in 1959
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, your pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water, and sunshine, and friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who have been ill and old are restored to health and strength, those who were hurt are made better and strong again, like we remember them before they go to heaven. They are happy and content except for one small thing, they each miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance, his bright eyes are shining, his body shakes. Suddenly he begins to run from the herd, rushing over the grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cuddle in a happy hug never to be apart again.
You and your pet are in tears. Your hands again cuddle his head and you look again into his trusting eyes, so long gone from life, but never absent from your heart, and then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together.
Different Perspectives on the Rainbow Bridge
The Comfort It Provides
For many grieving pet owners, the Rainbow Bridge concept offers essential comfort:
- Hope for reunion in an afterlife where love continues
- Peace about their pet's current state—free from pain and happy
- Validation that their bond was special and worth preserving
- Structure for grief that allows for both sadness and hope
- Spiritual framework that includes beloved animals
Veterinary staff, shelter workers, and others who deal regularly with animal death often find particular solace in the concept, needing to believe there's a better place waiting for the animals they couldn't save.
Why Some Find It Frustrating
Not everyone finds comfort in the Rainbow Bridge concept. Some feel it:
- Trivializes the struggle pets endured during illness
- Dismisses rather than validates grief by suggesting the pet is "in a better place"
- Oversimplifies complex emotions around loss and suffering
- Feels like an empty platitude when offered by those who didn't know the pet
As one grieving owner put it: "When we were told that he was finally happy and healthy at the Rainbow Bridge, it felt like my dog's struggle to live was a waste. The suggestion disparaged his yearlong courageous fight."
Modern Applications and Remembrance
Today, the Rainbow Bridge concept appears everywhere in pet mourning culture:
- Sympathy cards and memorial materials
- Pet cemetery monuments and plaques
- Veterinary clinic handouts given with cremated remains
- Online pet memorial websites and social media groups
- Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day (August 28th) dedicated to honoring deceased pets
The abbreviation "ATB" (At The Bridge) has become shorthand in online pet loss support communities, showing the lasting impact of Edna's words.
Edna's Life and Legacy
Edna has never lived without dogs since Major's passing. She has rescued street dogs in India, saved an injured hunting dog found hiding in a washing machine in Spain (whom she named Zanussi after the appliance manufacturer), and currently shares her life with Zanussi and Missy, a professionally trained caregiver dog who brings Edna her pajamas every night at 8 PM.
Her advice for those suffering pet loss? "Get another pet." While acknowledging that no relationship will be the same as the one lost, she believes new relationships can be equally special and loving in different ways. As she puts it: "If you love a dog, if you truly love it, it will always live on."
The Universal Truth
The Rainbow Bridge endures because it speaks to a fundamental truth about the human-animal bond. Whether one believes in the literal Rainbow Bridge or simply in the power of love to transcend death, Edna's words continue to offer comfort to grieving hearts worldwide.
Her story reminds us that sometimes the most powerful pieces of literature come not from professional writers, but from ordinary people processing extraordinary grief. A nineteen-year-old girl's love for her dog Major became a gift to millions of pet owners who needed to believe that love doesn't end with death.
The Rainbow Bridge stands as testament to the profound connections we form with our animal companions—bonds so deep that we cannot imagine eternity without them. In creating a place where that impossible separation becomes temporary, Edna gave grieving pet owners something precious: hope.