Pet loss resources / Remembrance traditions
What the Rainbow Bridge means
When someone says their pet has “crossed the Rainbow Bridge,” they mean their pet has died. It’s a gentle way to say it, and it comes from a short piece of writing that has comforted pet owners for decades.
The story
The Rainbow Bridge is a prose poem imagining a place where animals are healthy again after death. They wait for the people they loved, then cross a bridge together when they are reunited. That imagined reunion is the source of the expression.
Where it comes from
The poem circulated without a reliable attribution for many years. In a 2023 investigation for The Order of the Good Death, historian Paul Koudounaris identified Edna Clyne-Rekhy as its original author. His account includes photographs of her handwritten manuscript.
According to that research, she wrote it in Scotland in 1959, when she was 19, after her Labrador, Major, died. Copies traveled far beyond the people she initially shared it with. The investigation gives readers a documented account of its origins, rather than leaving the work simply labeled “anonymous.”
Why it helps
The story offers an image of relief from pain and a hope of reunion. For someone who connects with that image, the phrase can be a gentle way to speak about a death.
People differ in whether they understand it spiritually or as a metaphor. It is worth following a grieving person’s own language. If you are unsure what they believe, saying that you are sorry and using their pet’s name does not require either of you to agree about an afterlife.
If it doesn’t fit you
Not everyone finds comfort in the idea of waiting to meet again. Some people prefer to think of their pet as living on in memory — in the habits they left, the stories we tell, the moments we still turn to look for them.
You can choose language that fits you: their name, a memory, or a simple “I miss you.” Our writing guide offers ways to begin without choosing a spiritual explanation.
If you want to do something with that memory, you might keep a photograph, write a letter, or set out an object that belonged to them. The Mexican tradition of an ofrenda has its own cultural history and meaning; it is one approach you can learn about alongside other ways to remember a pet.
Sources & further reading
Written with AI assistance.