Loss in the family...

I know we try to keep these entries light and entertaining, but I feel we should post other significant events as well.

Haley has suffered her first experience of loss in her young life. Zoe, too, but she is unaware of it at present. Our kitty died suddenly and unexpectedly on Wednesday night. He was only 6 years old and in apparently good health, but he went to sleep in his favorite sunbeam and didn't wake up. Let me tell you, it's hard to explain "why" to a 5-year old when you don't know why yourself.

After grieving myself Wednesday night and all of Thursday while she was in school, Bill and I sat her down when she got home to tell her the bad news. We all cried and then went out for some "retail therapy" and dinner just to get out of the house. She suggested we get a kitten to feel better (she's been wanting one for a year now), but we told her it was time to grieve now, and that kitty could never be "replaced." She seems to accept that. All the questions we answered for her last year about death and dying and lifespans seem to have paid off - she seems to understand and has shown remarkable maturity for a 5-year-old. She says she'll keep him in her heart forever, that she's sending her love for him out to the universe, and that her heart is just a little bit broken. Mine, too.

So maybe when the spaces kitty used to occupy don't seem quite so empty and I'm not feeling such a loss, maybe we'll get a kitten. 'Til that time - Shady, we miss you, we love you, and life just isn't the same without you. Peace.