Years after retiring, a former zookeeper in a wheelchair often returned to the zoo where he once worked, quietly watching the animals he had loved. Those visits made him feel he still belonged “among them.”
One ordinary afternoon, as he sat by the gorilla enclosure, a female gorilla suddenly approached. Without warning, she “grabbed the handles of his wheelchair,” her strength shocking everyone. Visitors screamed and keepers rushed in, but the gorilla pulled the man—and his chair—into her enclosure. Panic filled the air. “Get a tranquilizer!” someone yelled.
The man, terrified, expected the worst. But instead of harm, “she approached slowly and tenderly.” She wrapped her arms around him, “rocking him softly, as though cradling a child.” The crowd fell silent, watching the astonishing gentleness of the encounter.
A whisper spread: “She remembers him.” After a long moment, the gorilla carefully set him down and pushed his wheelchair back to the fence, letting keepers bring him to safety.
As he was wheeled away, tears filled his eyes. Years ago, he had cared for that very gorilla as a baby. Her embrace was not aggression—it was recognition, a quiet reminder of love and memory that time could never erase.
