Mr. Jingles (Steamboat Willy) died at 64 at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. He was a very intelligent rodent. One like I've never seen before. He taught everyone at Cold Mountain Penitentiary more in the short time we had together than anyone. His energy around the E block was something we had never seen before in such a solemn place.
When I first saw him, he was just another pesky rodent. As time went on, I learnt to appreciate what he could do for the inmates and us guards. Without his little tricks, I don't know how I could have handled the end of my career at the penitentiary or my years at Georgia Pines. Even though every day was a chance to get caught by Brad Dolan or any other nursing home employee, it was worth it to help my little friend to his dying day. It was also such a relief for me to tell someone like Ellie about the strange things that happened at the penitentiary and have someone like Mr. Jingles around to be living proof of John Coffey’s healing. Now I'd like to take some time to acknowledge everyone involved in his life
Percy Wetmore. He deserves zero praise, then for one thing. If he never injured Mr. Jingles years ago, he would have never been able to live as long as he did. He showed us all that there will always be terrible men in life and it gave Mr. Jingles a chance to know who he can trust, and who he should be more careful of.
John Coffey is the one that deserves the real praise for bringing our little circus mouse back and stronger than ever. If it weren't for him, Mr. Jingles wouldn't have had such a long life and neither would I. Mr. Jingles true master Del, trusted very few and John was one of them. He cared for him almost as much as Mr. Jingles favourite ring master. We all cared for Mr. Jingles company, but never as much as Eduard Delacroix.
If it weren't for our mouse, poor old Del would have been lost. To this day, at 104, I still remember how proud Del was of his little circus mouse. "Look what Mr.jingles can do!" he would say. Eduard was ready to give everything he had (granted that wasn't much) for our little friend. His final wishes before his death was to make sure that Mr. Jingles was okay. No matter his family or friends. All he cared about was his mouse. Even though Del was sentenced to death for the murder of many, Mr. Jingles could still find a way to make his last few weeks of life a little more tolerable. To make all of our lives a little more tolerable.
Thank you Mr. Jingles for being everyone's light in the dark.
