Zeke and understanding death

Zeke is my youngest child at seven years old. He is a daddy's boy through and through, but every once in a while we do connect in ways that amaze me.

Last week at dinner he asked me where Grandpa Bob was buried at. My father had passed away 13 years previously when I was pregnant with my second child. Needless to say, not even my oldest remembers him.

I answered Zeke by saying that Grandpa had been cremated. Zeke wanted to know what does that mean ? So I explained that when someone dies their soul goes to heaven, and everyone that is left on earth carries a part of that person in their heart and in their mind. And what is left is sent to a place called a cremotoriam and burned.

Needless to say, Zeke did not like this idea at all and told me that it is wrong. His father and I explained why we both like this idea, but he can make up his own mind when he becomes an adult. Then he asked, what happened to Grandpa's ashes. I told him that Grandma held onto them for awhile and when she was ready scattered them on a baseball field, because Grandpa loved baseball. Zeke got great big tears in his eyes, and said that that was very wrong, and we should not have done that.

Still a week later he is angry at me. As a child that has really never had to deal with death up close and personal, this is a story that will go on for a long time. None of my children have had to say goodbye to a loved one forever. And I know that this is inevitable, but I am willing to deal with it when it does happen but I am in no hurry.