For every pet who crossed over · For every person left behind
The Rainbow Bridge
A poem for the ones whose time on earth is over and done.
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.
Edna Clyne-Rekhy
1959 · written for her dog, Major
And then someone built it.
Paul Made the Bridge Real
Paul Allabaugh read this poem and did what craftsmen do. He built it. Not in words. In wood.
He cut the slats. He painted the rainbow stripes by hand. He stamped paw prints down the center of every bridge. He made them for Mickey, Jeffy, and Chico, his three Chihuahuas. Then he made them for everyone, for years. About forty remained by the time he was gone.
Paul couldn't find a way to sell them. He had social anxiety. He died by suicide on March 30, 2026, before the world ever knew his name. His widow, Pat, carried the bridges after he was gone, until she passed on June 13, 2026. His bridges are still here. Every one sold supports the family Paul and Pat left behind.
Honor a pet with a real rainbow bridge
Place one in your garden where they rest. Stand at the edge. Remember. Every sale honors Paul's hands and supports the family he and Pat left behind, right here in Volusia County.
Shop Paul's BridgesThe Two Women Who Kept the Bridge
For more than sixty years, no one knew who wrote it. The Rainbow Bridge passed hand to hand through grieving pet owners, photocopied in vet offices, read at backyard burials, almost always signed “Author Unknown.” Words got changed along the way.
Edna Clyne-Rekhy wrote it in 1959, in Scotland, when she was nineteen, the day she lost her dog Major. She wrote it for herself and tucked it away. Friends asked for copies, and the copies traveled the world without her name on them. In 2023, the historian Paul Koudounaris went looking for the author and traced it all the way back to Edna, who still had the original in a box in her attic. National Geographic confirmed it. The words above are hers, restored to the way she actually wrote them.
Two women, decades apart, kept this bridge from falling. Edna gave the world the words. Pat Allabaugh carried her husband Paul's wooden bridges after he was gone, until she crossed over too. Neither one set out to start anything. Both of them just refused to let the love go to waste.
What is not debated is its impact. The poem has been printed on sympathy cards, shared in veterinary offices, read at pet memorials, and recited by grieving families around the world. It gives language to a grief that many people feel deeply but struggle to express.
The concept of a rainbow bridge connecting earth to an afterlife appears in Norse mythology as Bifröst, and across many spiritual traditions. The poem brought that ancient image into the modern home: the bond between humans and the animals they love, never fully broken.
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If you or someone you know is struggling with the loss of a pet, or with anything heavier: Call or text 988
“My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”
John 14:2