Death of a Mother

A couple of days ago, the mother of one of the players on my husband's baseball team passed away. My husband, of course, went to the wake that night. He told Jio and Lilia where he was going. He was dressed in a suit and they wondered. I have always been reluctant to bring up death with Jio, especially, because he is so sensitive. When he was younger, I skipped over Babar's mother's death while reading the book, and phrases such as "dead tired" because he became so alarmed at hearing them. He started asking me questions about the baseball player's mother's death. I remember being that age, and being terrified of my own mother dying, and how promises of heaven or talk of the cycle of nature didn't help at all. I told Jio that I would do my best to stay healthy. Recently, I have been walking almost every day and I'm trying to eat better. And, because death is a part of life whether we like it or not, I've stopped skipping passages about death in books when I read aloud.