Celest's grandma passed away
Celest's grandma just passed away earlier today. She was over 90 years old and had no illness, just left silently in her sleep, peacefully.
May God bless her soul.
Nigel and Shannon have never been to a funeral wake before this and they were actually quite relaxed about seeing their great-grandmother's body in the coffin. Questions about heaven, hell, the soul, spirits were tossed in our direction non-stop and I, for one, had to focus to ensure the answers I provided made sense, were consistent and tie-in with what we hear in church.
Shannon kept going to the coffin to peer in and as she did so, hung on the the handle, which caused it to rock slightly (to my terror). I told her not to do that as it might knock the entire coffin to the ground and she said, "Will Lao Ma wake up then?". Also, she kept telling her cousins that Lao Ma's legs were further inside the coffin, and then came up to me to confirm.
Kids are amusing, innocent and so fragile all at once - they take everything in stride, perhaps not understanding the permanence of death. But she burst out in tears just before she slept, I'm not sure why (Shannon has a habit of doing this, she's very emotional). Perhaps it just struck her, or perhaps Celest struck her (Celest has a habit of doing this too).
Then she stopped, and ran to our room to fetch her tiger.
May God bless her soul.
Nigel and Shannon have never been to a funeral wake before this and they were actually quite relaxed about seeing their great-grandmother's body in the coffin. Questions about heaven, hell, the soul, spirits were tossed in our direction non-stop and I, for one, had to focus to ensure the answers I provided made sense, were consistent and tie-in with what we hear in church.
Shannon kept going to the coffin to peer in and as she did so, hung on the the handle, which caused it to rock slightly (to my terror). I told her not to do that as it might knock the entire coffin to the ground and she said, "Will Lao Ma wake up then?". Also, she kept telling her cousins that Lao Ma's legs were further inside the coffin, and then came up to me to confirm.
Kids are amusing, innocent and so fragile all at once - they take everything in stride, perhaps not understanding the permanence of death. But she burst out in tears just before she slept, I'm not sure why (Shannon has a habit of doing this, she's very emotional). Perhaps it just struck her, or perhaps Celest struck her (Celest has a habit of doing this too).
Then she stopped, and ran to our room to fetch her tiger.