My 4-year-old daughter brought me this drawing the other day and said "This is what happened to your Mom and Dad."  I half expected a demonic grin like a scene from an Omen sequel or a bad exorcism movie, but it was just matter-of-fact coming from her.

"What?"

"Yeah, remember that turtle from Yertle the Turtle?  That's what happened to them."

Weeks ago we'd read that, and she was fascinated with a turtle in the pile with his eyes Xed out.  She'd seen Xs for eyes before in comics and I tried to explain that it meant somebody was passed out or knocked out, or, skirting the issue, maybe dead.  When it came to Yertle the Turtle I'm pretty sure Dr. Suess didn't mean for one of the turtles to die from being stacked up as Yertle's throne, but she kept insisting that that turtle was dead.  Considering that she still seems to think Grandma's cat is away somewhere healing up with my Dad, who she remembers more than my mom, I don't know what she understands about death.

An already long line of cheap tropical fish and pet frogs has perhaps inured her to the whole thing.  I remember spending a good chunk of my childhood obsessed and scared crapless about the concept, myself.  I clearly recall learning the permanancy of death when I thought the dinosaurs in some monster movie were going to come back to life to chase the cavemen some more, and my Dad yelled at me like I was crazy.  "When your dead, you're dead, that's it!"

I always worried about teaching a kid about death-- what would I tell her when she asks questions?  I cringed when my wife bought her the old version of Charlotte's Web on DVD-- what can of worms is that going to open?  But she watched it several (dozen?) times, up until around the time she turned 4 and suddenly "got" it.  "I don't want that horrible movie!" she yelled.  "It made me sad!"  But she got over it.  That book depressed the hell out of me in the fourth grade, so maybe just the fact that she's a strong-willed kid whose mom isn't running around the house constantly screaming "One of you kids is going to drown in the God#$%@ tub!" is enough for her to figure it out on her own, whatever stories I might tell her.