Death

Today I have to learn a way to explain death to Kristopher. He's almost 5 and never really experienced this other than with gold fish. I got a call this morning from my aunt saying that my grandmother passed away. She has been battling Alzheimer's for several years now along with heart problems, diabetes, and in remission 2 times I think for cancer. So it's not really a big surprise and at this point it's that we all know she's not suffering anymore, and is in a better place. I feel bad that we haven't visited her in years, but she hasn't known me in over 5 yrs, and hasn't known any of her kids in at least 2. She changed from this wonderful sweet person to mean and cranky after she lost all that. She has met K 2 times I think, and neither of those times did she understand who he was. So he really doesn't "know" her.
I briefly explained so far that he needs to be nice and calm later today when he sees Pappy because "Pappy's mom died this morning and he will be sad." He was really concerned about if she was in the cemetery up the road from us, do we go see her while she's "in the ground" and "how did she died?" I just explained that she was really sick and now she's not hurting anymore. And she won't be in the cemetery up the road because it's not close to her home. We're not real religious, and we do not go to church so I'm not sure how to handle explaining things more. Maybe what I said is good enough. She was catholic so there will be a big funeral at the church and I plan on attending but I don't know if I should bring Kristopher into that. He's extremely sensitive and I don't know if he can handle seeing people crying, and I don't know if he would sit quiet enough for how long this is going to be. Plus then there is also the fact of the body sitting there for the whole room to see. I'm just not sure how to handle this...... While I'm sad she's gone, I'm glad that she's finally free of all this that has hurt her and taken so much away from her over the years. She was such a sweet and caring person and it was not fair she had to go through so much pain and problems. We've expected this call for at least the past 5 yrs, and I'm shocked she fought and held on so long. At least now she is free.