Gone to a Better Place

Our son had his first experience with death recently. It went better than I'd hoped.

It all started one Sunday afternoon after I had made a chicken for dinner. Or, actually, after I'd purchased one of those pre-cooked chickens from the grocery store. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to break the wishbone with him. Of course, I made sure that he "won" and then asked him what he wished for. He wished for a fish (which I'm sure came from My World). So off we went to Meijer to get a fish. We picked out a goldfish, whom he named Dorothy. I guess toddlers think all goldfish are named Dorothy. Dorothy cost $0.12 and came with a 48 hour survival guarantee. After a few weeks of caring for her, we found Dorothy doing the backstroke one evening. We gently broke the news to J the next morning that Dorothy had died. "That's ok," he said, "I guess she had to go back to Meijer."