An Eleven Year Old Deals With Death

Today I sat my class down and told them about Kenny's mom. They were all very concerned. I told them that I would be sending an arrangement to the funeral home from his classmates. That helped easy them a bit. Basically they all were good today. News of Kenny's trouble made them more caring.

Several of my students live in his neighborhood and their parents wanted me to double check on absences today, because they want to go to the funeral. I got most of that taken handled. Managed to get the okay to set up an educational fund for Kenny...they do not need anymore flowers or plants.

Went to an IEP then it was time to go to the funeral home for a Southern thing called "Visitation". It is where the family is at the funeral home at a given time and everyone drops by to pay their respects. My precious Kenny looking so small in his black dress pants, white shirt, black tie, and dress shoes. He was sitting between two other teachers at our school trying to be the little man. He came to hug me, I told him how nice he looked. Soon we were both wisked away, but continued to make eye contact. F and I met his grandmother wonderful woman, wonders how she can do homework with him she only has an eighth grade education and grandpa only has a seventh grade education. We told her not to worry, but everyone in our little town is worried the CRCT is coming. She told me how they had let Kenny pick out the casket, the flowers, and the clothes his mom wore. A big job for such a small boy.

The people kept coming. We started to leave and went to tell him good-bye. He said we could stay a little while longer if we wanted to. So we did. Our angel boy kept his tie on for about an hour and a half, when a cousin showed up and he made a dash for outside. Wanting so much to regain a moment of carefree, childlike freedom. I knew we could leave and we said good bye to him outside.

Childhood should not be filled with picking out your mom's casket, but sometimes it is. One day when Kenny is old he will stumble upon the book all of his teachers and neighbors were signing tonight. It is in that moment when it falls open that he will remember how loved he and his mother were. It is at that moment he will think of how little he really understood today...I know I did the other day.