The day of the funeral was beautiful. The weather was amazing, the local church packed, the countryside stunning and my children well behaved.

At the burial we all threw a rose on the casket, and so did my daughter. It was sad, but it all went well.
But when we were ready to go home, my daughter suddenly panicked and said we couldn’t leave oma behind — we had to go back to get her and take her home with us!
Funny enough, I had completely forgotten to explain to her that oma would stay in the cemetery forever… So we walked back to the grave, threw some earth on the casket and waved bye-bye. She blew kisses, because, as she explained to me, she couldn’t reach oma for a real kiss anymore. It was a very endearing moment, and afterwards she was perfectly happy to leave the cemetery.

My daughter’s preschool teacher told me children don’t really get the concept of death until they are seven. I’m sure this is true but still, an important person suddenly disappears from a child’s life — we have to try to give some sort of explanation! We can talk about a star in heaven, or an angel in the sky…

In our case, the fact that we brought our children to the funeral helped.
Whenever we talk about oma now, my daughter tells me her oma lies in a casket covered with flowers, earth and kisses. Sweet, I think.

xxx Esther

Picture of my mum’s funeral in France…