Last Friday evening, when I was at a gathering at Shack, for a fundraising event my daughter’s school association (usually called parent teacher organization or PTO in other schools), with auction and beer/food etc. I was talking to a dad, since his kid is same grade as my daughter. I said “I know your wife too”. Then suddenly he said his wife passed away. I did not know. That reminds me of couple other parents’ passing for the same grade kids, due to various reasons.
I had my daughter was I was 39, and she is 7 years old now. I think I am at the older side of my cohort parents (parents of kids at my daughter’s grade). And when I heard this type of news from my daughter’s mouth in last few instances, I felt very sad for the affected kids and families. Once I told my daughter: give the kid a lot of hugs. She said she won’t mention the passing parent to the kid. Yes that’s a good idea too.
Our younger one is only 3, and she could not quite understand the concept of “death” yet. She thinks she will live with us forever. I hope we can live with our kids as long as possible/practical *don’t want to be a burden to them when the day comes 🙁