Out of the mouths of babes

There are a lot of us who have issues with the holidays when some family members are no longer present and I’m one of them. My sister Kathy was always the big Christmas person in our family and she’s no longer here to make it fun and exciting.

I’m getting to be a little bit less of a Grinch these days, but it’s still not the same.

Sometimes I think we need to look through the eyes of a child, and just as I was writing this, my friend, Shari Seifert, sent me something I’d like to share along those lines.

Shari’s son Zachary was home sick one day and he was talking to his dog, Jackson, about his Grandma Goodie and Grandpa Cliff who had recently passed.

Here is Zachary’s version of what happens in the afterlife, as relayed by his other mother Melissa.

He was lying on a flip bed with Jackson sweetly playing with stuffed animals, acting out a drama for the dog. I tried to catch his script for you to “hear” it. Imagine it if you can.

Zachary said in a storytelling little voice to Jackson while manipulating stuffed animals (a red fluffy hippo, a soft blue long-limbed monkey and his little “Sheepie”): Here’s Angel Grandma Goodie, whee!, and here’s Angel Grandpa Cliff, whee! Here they are Jackson! They’re not freaky, they’re just soft and cute.

You become kids again when you die, Jackson, so they’re flying up and down, whee!

Grandma Goodie was so old she couldn’t walk, but now she runs and does cartwheels! And around and around...she’s surfing on nothing!

(And some of this is sung to the tune of “It’s a Gift to Be Simple”...)

A nd A nge l Gr a ndpa C liff (the r ed fl uffy h ippo) flies down and picks up Nana (Sheepie) and they fly around together. She rides on his back and she’s so happy, and they hug and kiss!

And they soar around stars, and they dance around. Outer space is so fun, says Nana. We can do somersaults in the sky. Oh, no, Cliff! We’re flying back to Mars!

And Angel Cliff flies and rescues her. He ties a rope to her and pulls her to safety.”

(And Melissa adds: and now it’s getting too fast and furious for me to type, but the main theme is that Cliff and Frances are flying around in space and Grandpa C liff s aves Nana f rom a tornado, speaking in a deep Texan voice at times. He knows I’m here, but I don’t think he’s performing for me. It’s so sweet and interesting to hear him processing all this. It was TOTALLY worth it for him to be sick today, just so I could hear this. It makes my heart swell.)

Out of the mouths of babes.