August 13, 2003
A lesson in mortality
Last night Trevor and I were talking in his room after he had gotten into bed. I noticed that he was holding a giant stuffed bunny rabbit that I didn't recognize, and I asked him where it was from.
"It's from the lady that died in the hotel room"
?!?! Whoa. At first I had visions of his speaking to ghosts in hotels crossing somewhere between Sixth Sense and The Shining. As I thought about it some more and realized what he was talking about.
Recently Tara's Great-Aunt Mary passed away. She was really quite a nice person. While Tara and Trevor were visiting New Jersey on vacation last month, they went with Tara's family to go clean up Aunt Mary's apartment in the Assisted Living facility that she had lived in. Which, by the way looks a lot like a hotel, especially to somoene who is 4.9 years old. Everyone tried to take something that reminded them of Aunt Mary with them to remember her by. Trever who knows her as "The lady that died in the hotel room", grabbed a cute bunny stuffed animal.
Trevor then asked me why she died. That was a tough one, but we carefully talked about how people's bodies change as they get older and what happens to people when they get sick, and sometimes die. I thought perhaps he might have been a little bothered by the conversation because he was sitting there quietly for a few seconds, until he turned to me and said:
"daddy, can I stay up all night long and watch cartoons?"
:) That questions spurred another whole conversation that we'll talk about some other time.
Comments
Whenever Trevor gets a pensive look on his face, I try to catch him in the moment and ask what he's thinking about. Inevitably, the answer is, "I like snacks."