Time is precious.
Cancer is evil.
A dear friend of the Hoy family passed away last Monday after a three and a half year battle with cancer. We struggled with what to tell Lily - disagreeing on whether we needed to talk to her about it. I felt she's old enough to understand it. Mike wanted to let her be little. I reminded him that the other day in a fit of frustration over my daughter being ungrateful I told her that some children don't have toys, homes, or even mommies and daddies. I reminded him that bad things happen and we can't keep her in a bubble.
I won the battle. But I didn't win anything. I had to tell my four year old that we were going to church to say good-bye to her Grandma's best friend. That we would see her again in Heaven but right now she was hanging out in the big blue sky watching us. Protecting us. I had to tell her that we would see her grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, our friends, as well as many other people. And that some of those people would be sad.
She crawled into my lap with her thinking hard face and asked me if Sue took her pool to Heaven with her. I explained to her that when people leave Earth they leave behind all of their belongings because there wasn't enough room in Heaven for everyone's stuff. She clutched her "green blankey" and told me she was going to sneak it into Heaven - that God wouldn't mind. Fighting back tears I held her tight and knew we'd made the right decision to talk to her about it.
Later that evening when we arrived at the visitation, there was table after table of Sue's treasured Christmas decorations. Her daughters asked that the items be taken in remembrance of Sue and I couldn't believe how perfect it was after explaining to Lily that we leave behind our worldly possessions when we die. Even more fitting was Lily's chosen piece - an angel bear - because in Lily's words - "Sue is probably an angel". Probably? Sue was an angel on Earth so I can only imagine what kind of angel wings she's sporting in Heaven.
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