Missing Mama Hen

I am missing one of my favorite hens of all time. She went missing a couple of days ago. She was a good old gal. I got her as a tiny chick when my son was 3 years old, he is 12 years old now so that would make Mama Hen at least 9 years old. I can remember going and getting her from a friend of mine who thought I might like to have a few chickens around my house. She was an older lady who had been a friend of my family for many years. I remember her standing at the end of her sidewalk laughing at me trying to catch the little fluffy chick. She laughed and yelled, "Can't you catch that little bitty?" My kids were with me and my daughter would yell, "It went under the bush!"..."Now it ran under that tractor!"..."Get it Mom!"..."There it goes!" We finally got it and took it home. Mama hen grew to be an unusual chicken. She was a black chicken of unknown breed, a little funny looking with feathers sticking out of the top of her head. She was a wonderful mother and each Spring she would hatch lots and lots of chicks. That is when I started calling her Mama Hen. She would adopt anything small and fluffy. She grew a spur on one leg (roosters usually have the spurs) and was known to crow when she was very upset. I could not believe my eyes...or ears...but she crowed! In her later years, she had stopped laying eggs and was going blind but I kept her anyway. I would make sure she got her share of snacks and would put her by the water on hot days. She could no longer see well enough to fly up on a roost at night so she would sleep on the floor of the coop. Just a few weeks ago I saw her taking in some new chicks in the coop under her wings for the night. Nice old warm Mama Hen!
Well, I noticed she was missing the other day, she may have gotten lost, picked up by a hawk that she could not see coming. I am sad, she was a good hen that lived a long time. We have a chicken graveyard where our favorite chickens are buried. She can not be buried there but I think I will put a stone with her name on it there with the others. She will be missed.