‘Everybody was crying’: NC hospice patient fulfills lifelong dream of feeding a giraffe

CHERRYVILLE, N.C. (WJZY) – “Once upon a time, there was a girl who really loved giraffes,” a series of bedroom signs read at a Cherryville home.

Look around and you quickly realize that the tall mammals are Debbie Zurbriggen’s spirit animals.

“I fell in love with that animal,” she says of the fascination that goes back to middle school.

No matter what the occasion, daughter Beth Parra knows just what to buy for her mother.

“Giraffes have always been her thing,” Parra told WJZY.

There are stuffed animals, blankets, slippers, even a giraffe on her case of her iPhone, which went off from time to time while we were there.

“You got boys texting you or something?” this reporter quipped.

She’d already made us comfortable enough to say such things.

“That don’t even deserve a comment,” Zurbriggen snaps back without missing a beat.

“She’s a very strong woman, very sassy, feisty,” says Parra.

“I heard that!” her mom said.

While it’s clear she has spunk to spare, Debbie and her loved ones are coming to terms with the beginning of the end. 

“She came home from the hospital July 4 with end-stage heart failure,” Parra says.

In the summer, one doctor feared Debbie was unlikely to live past September. She receives hospice care at home, surrounded by images of her favorite gentle giants.

“You’re a special woman,” says Carley Phelps, a social worker for Carolina Caring.

“How have you been feeling?” she asks.

“Rough,” Zurbriggen replied.

We mostly think of the word “hospice” as a word full of fear and finality. But hospice care is intended to improve quality of life and, in some cases, bring happiness.

“She said that her final wish would be to feed a giraffe in person,” explained Phelps. “When I heard that it just stuck out to me. It became my mission.”

Phelps contacted the Carolina Caring Foundation, which paved the way for a dream encounter at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. The foundation arranged for her to feed a giraffe, also inviting family and nursing staff to experience it with her.

Precious photos show her ear-to-ear smile right before the long-awaited moment.

“This has been on my bucket list since seventh grade,” Zurbriggen explained.

“We went up on the giraffe deck, her face was just pure joy really,” Beth recalls. “And all of us just knew how much that meant to her.”

“’I’m actually getting to do this,’” Zurbriggen thought. “And then when I turned, and there it was, I just bursted out tears.”

It was all captured on camera. Zurbriggen was in awe, face-to-face with a giraffe named Jack. The animal stands 16 feet tall and weighs 2646 pounds.

“Then, I feed him. You’re not supposed to touch ‘em… I touched it,” she said, whispering that last part mischievously.

She loved every second.

“I felt the side of its tongue, sticky,” Zurbriggen described. “And then I felt the side of its face, it’s like dog fur.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in that part of the zoo. It was an emotional day for everyone who saw her.

“Everybody was crying, not sad tears, it was happy tears,” Parra said.

“And it was wonderful to have my family with me. We were doing something that I’ve always wanted to do,” Zurbriggen says.

“I’ll carry this day in my heart forever,” Phelps said of that day at the zoo. “She hasn’t given up on those hopes and dreams and for me that has been incredibly impactful.”

The experts say Debbie’s life expectancy is a matter of months. We can only hope they’re wrong again.

There’s no guarantee she’ll be alive at Christmastime, so the family plans to celebrate in November. Zurbriggen already has presents for everyone, but their zoo outing together was the biggest gift for everyone.

“Now y’all have me crying,” Zurbriggen said, lying in bed, thankful for the human herd that’s been by her side all along.

“I don’t know how people do this without having family. I don’t know how they do it,” she says.

“That was our last big family outing,” Parra says.

Even at the end of life, her mother finds joy in life. Pictures remind Zurbriggen of one of the greatest days ever.

“They’re beautiful,” she says, flipping through printed photographs. “Oh, and they got me a giraffe cake.”