Dealing With Death At Age 5

I don't think she understands completely that Papaw Charles is gone.

What a hard concept to explain to a five year old. And what an even harder job for a parent to do.

Garren came back from Tennessee yesterday afternoon where he spent the week with family and attended the funeral of his grandfather. I asked him refrain from telling her when he got in.

I know I coddle her too much, and I have done far too many things to keep her from hearing and seeing bad things in the world. From my perspective we have too few years to live so care and worry free. She has most of her life to worry and cry and be scared. Let her enjoy the innocence as long as she can.

But, I can't shield her from this. She wanted to see Papaw Charles and send him a card to feel better--and some one had to tell her he wasn't going to get better.

Garren asked to do it alone. I wasn't a fan of the idea, since I wanted to talk to her together and let her be in a safe environment--but I stepped back and let him do what he needed to do.

I didn't need to worry so much. She was apparently somber, but okay with the talk. She even went and brought her daddy a box of tissues.

I think she will have more questions and we will have to do some extra explaining over the next few days and weeks.

This goes down as one of the "hard parts" of being a parent.

**Picture from October 2009, when we went to see him, knowing that he wanted to meet Thomas, and knowing that his cancer was getting the better of him **

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