Losing Papou

I have Google ads on my blogs. Of course I can't click them, because that's a no-no with Google. If someone sat here clicking their own ads, of course they'd get in trouble with the program. And it'd be unethical, unless you were a very impulsive buyer, who wanted something that everyone was advertising.

But I don't think there's any rule against calling attention to some of them. One I just noticed, at my Grandma Slump blog, is on explaining death to children. This one mentions grandparents and there was another one as well. Probably because the blog is called Grandma Slump. Just what I need, having her read my blog and seeing all this stuff about grandparents dying. At 104, that's the last thing she wants to think about (I assume). But since Grandpa's sitting on a cloud up there, like in the Family Circus comics, maybe she wants to get to him.

The ad says "Comfort your children about loss of a parent or grandparent." That's important. Today's pampered child can't face death like we did when I was a kid. I had a friend whose Mom and Dad rented out their house to a funeral home to keep bodies in their living room, because it was in a different town from the funeral home, and if someone from that town died, that's where they'd be for the visitation. So we'd be over there playing and there might be a dead body in the room too!

I remember the first funeral I went to. I'm still fascinated by the guy and this was almost 45 years ago. In fact I looked up his gravesite picture online just today. True. I plan on visiting his grave when I'm in the area. Because I found the cemetery on Google Earth and now I know how to get there. I think there was less than 10 people at the funeral, including a kid, namely me. In 1965.

Of course since then I've seen a lot of death -- a lot of death. People dropping dead everywhere. After a while you start taking it in stride. It's that first one that sticks with you.

The name of the website is www.losingpapou.com.

I think children can handle death OK. "You know how Puffy your hamster is an angel in heaven? Well, Grandma had to go feed him. And unfortunately she's never coming back."

Mamou has gone to be with Papou.