After losing his daughter, this widowed dad adopted two bulldogs for a deeply personal reason
'I buried them together, Mark.'
Grief can change how people see the world, and individuals may find comfort in what their loved ones once dreamed about. Dog photographer and content creator Mark Butters (@fetchmycamera_) from Warwickshire met Ivan while photographing dogs and learned why he had adopted sibling English bulldogs, King and Lucy. Ivan told him that his late daughter had always wanted a brother-and-sister pair, so he got the dogs in her memory after losing both her and his wife to cancer. Butters recently revisited Ivan’s story in an October 19, 2026 YouTube video, bringing renewed attention to the deeply personal reason behind the adoption. The YouTube video has garnered over 2,000 views, while the Instagram videos of Ivan and his lovely English bulldogs drew over millions of views!
In memoriam
Mark Butters enjoyed photographing people's dogs and listening to their stories. He soon learned that King and Lucy carried a deeply personal meaning for Ivan. He said his wife, Edna Cheadle (1952-2018), and daughter, Michelle 'Shell' Miller (1976-2019), had both died of cancer just six months apart, and that his daughter had always wanted a brother-and-sister pair of bulldogs. After losing her, Ivan adopted King and Lucy in her memory. He also told Butters that he had bought a memorial bench in the park, near the spot where his daughter had once posed for a wedding photograph beneath a willow tree. “I buried them together, Mark,” he said, before apologizing for sharing so much of his life with a stranger.
Walked for terminally ill kids
Ivan also told Butters that years earlier he had taken part in a fundraising walk. "I was on the Wall of China a long time ago, for terminally ill children, for the Acorns' Hospice... I raised nearly £5,000 (about $6,700) for terminally ill children." Ivan added, "You know when I talk to people like you [Butters], I know there's hope in this world." A few days after their meeting, Butters went to meet Ivan again at the park, but this time, he arrived with a gift.
He handed Ivan the acrylic and canvas prints of the photos he took of Lucy and King during their first meeting. Ivan's story spread like wildfire, and even Khloe Kardashian liked the post. During an interview with the BBC, Ivan said, "It made me laugh to think, 'I don't know the Kardashians, but they know me. I was more surprised everyone understood my Black Country accent."
Remembering a lost loved one
Losing a loved one to cancer is hard, but losing one's spouse and daughter, all in the span of a year, is soul-crushing. But they often find personal ways to keep a loved one’s memory present. In a poll (between November 21, 2011 and January 5, 2012) of 531 bereaved U.S. children and teenagers who had lost a parent or sibling by the National Alliance for Children's Grief (NACG), 71% said they remembered their loved ones by keeping their photos or other items that once belonged to them. 65% honored them by enjoying life and having fun. 54% remembered them by doing something their late loved ones enjoyed, and 53% shared stories about the good times they had. In Ivan's case, he adopted two bulldogs in memory of Michelle and shared his wife and his daughter's story with Butters, who was a stranger to him.
Healing paws
People noted how strong Ivan was for sharing his story with a stranger, and commented on how loved the dogs were. @prithiviii_raj wrote, "At this point, it's Lucy and King who are making this man want to wake up in the morning. What a fighter." @jessie_b124 added, "What a wonderful man, whose heart has clearly been broken, and those dogs are his life."
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