San Diego Zoo
Gramma the Galápagos tortoise died last week, at approximately 141 years of age.
I have a vague memory from long ago. I was small, a toddler, and I had taken a vacation trip to the San Diego Zoo with my grandparents. Somebody set me atop a large, round rock and started to take a picture. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I think that’s a baseline state when one is so young.
Suddenly, the ground shifted. I looked down in fright and curiosity, and saw that the rock had sprouted thick, scaly legs and it was now walking, with me on its back. I suppose I cried. The rock, of course, was a Galápagos tortoise. Was it Gramma? There is a fair chance that it was.
I suspect the zoo took the giant tortoises out of the petting zoo area shortly after that. Certainly, the next time I returned to the zoo there was no riding on them. It was shocking enough, though, to form a snapshot memory. (And was there a snapshot? I haven’t seen it in the few photos of my grandparents that have survived to be passed down to me.)
Rest in peace, Gramma. You earned it.
—2p