Monday, June 29, 2009

No more

A family friend's four year old, let's call him Noodles, which is actually one of his nicknames, has been a frequent visitor at my parents' place in Toronto. My mother is one of his favourite people and he will not pass up the chance to spend the night at their place. So, of course he regales her with all sorts of stories and is quite content with having 'conversations' with her, not to mention playing games with her on her iPhone.

During one of their conversations, the topic of relating something back to each of their parents came up. Noodles asked my mother where her parents were. Not wanting to tell a four year old that they had long since passed she told him they were not around. Her rationalisation was, how much does a four year old know and even understand the concept of being dead anyway.

Noodles, proceeds to ask her: Well, where are they?

Mom: Well, they're not alive anymore. They're in heaven now.

Noodles: In heaven?

Mom: Yes, in heaven, with Jesus.

Noodles: In heaven with Jesus? Oh, so they died?

Mom: !?!?!?!?!?!

And here she was trying to break it to him gently. Well, apparently that was unnecessary! He's obviously a very smart four year old.

Which bring me to this, with all this 24 hour coverage of the legendary Michael Jackson's demise and the constant scrutiny and airing of how his fans come to terms with his death, I have to wonder: do WE, as adults, really know and understand the concept of death and what it means to be dead?

2 comments:

bichonpawz said...

Personally I believe that there is way too much coverage of the whole Michael Jackson thing. I think at this point they should let him rest in peace. Something he really didn't have in life. Wow...I agree with your mom...I would have been surprised too!!

CoolDestiny said...

I think death is one of the most thought about thing and one of the least understood. I know for me, the thought of death of my loved ones sends in right to tearville, especially if it is my offspring. It is certainly one of the hardest things to deal with. I hope Noodles won't be affected by the absence of his parents.