Photos for Headline Surfer / A truly touching gesture: The Seninole County Sheriff's Office's 'Wrangler' is shown above in the inset & below in a display image with another horse, partially obscured in this still image. Sheriff Dennis Lemma recognized Wrangler's human partner, Deputy Molly Smith, with a special award for bringing comfort to a cancer-stricken elderly woman in her final hours as she arranged to have the horse at her bedside for a respite from impending death.
SANFORD, Fla. -- There were few dry eyes in the room when Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma presented Deputy Molly Smith with the Community Service Award during the law enforcement agency's annual awards ceremony over the weekend.
Deputy Smith helped fulfill the last wish of an elderly woman with end-stage cancer, the sheriff told Headline Surfer, in such a loving and compassionate way that her action gives added meaning to the mantra "to serve and protect."
"The woman, who was a horse gal when she was younger, told her children that she wanted to see, touch and smell a horse one more time," Lemma said.
"Unfortunately, she was confined to bed and was not able to travel to see a horse. So, Deputy Smith loaded up her very own horse, Wrangler, and transported him to a local facility so that the dying woman could interact with a horse one last time."
"Unfortunately, she was confined to bed and was not able to travel to see a horse," Sheriff Dennis Lemma explained.
"So, Deputy Smith loaded up her very own horse, Wrangler, and transported him to a local facility so that the dying woman could interact with a horse one last time."
Shortly over 24 hours after the visit, the woman passed away.