Nana passed away almost two years ago and saying good-bye to her was one of the most difficult days of my life. But what still surprises me is how much my son {who was 3 years old at the time} remembers about that day. Moreover, how much he remembers her.
I was tucking him in bed last night when he caught me a little off guard. A conversation began and went something like this…
“Mommy, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure sweetie.”
“How did Nana die?”
“Well honey, sometimes when you get older and reach a certain age your body doesn’t work as good as it used to work…”
“How come?”
“Well, when people get older, sometimes they have problems inside their bodies and sometimes there are many problems that are hard to fix.”
“Why are they hard to fix? Can’t they just take medicine to make them feel better?”
“Well sweetie, sometimes medicine isn’t enough to fix the problems in their bodies.”
“Well, like what kind of problems?”
“Like if someone has a heart problem, sometimes their heart just doesn’t work as good as it did when the person was younger…”
“So why can’t they just get a new heart?”
“It doesn’t always work out like that honey…”
“Well I would have given my heart to Nana…”
Getting choked up I managed to mutter the words, “I know you would have sweetie.”
“But Mommy, I still don’t get it. What’s the number?”
“What do mean – number?”
“Like give me a number of when your body doesn’t work as good anymore.”
“Well, the number is different for every person. Some people live to be 90 and some even live to be 100. But sometimes, people die much younger.”
“But what number does it start at?”
“I would say around 80. How’s that?”
“But I still don’t get it…because trees are much older than that and they don’t die and they don’t seem to have any problems! Mommy, why can’t we be like trees? Then we could live forever.”
“Oh my special boy, you are absolutely right…why can’t we be more like trees?”
With that thought I held my son’s hand, kissed his forehead and stared at the ceiling above. I closed my eyes for a moment and all I can remember thinking was why can’t more trees in this world be more like him?
