The kids always seem to express their thoughts in the car. Today, Melat told me "I don't want to get old, because old people are gross." Melat is my four and a half year old Ethiopian daughter.
I asked her why old people are gross. She reminisced about a recent trip to Missouri to see my grandfather in his last days. My kids do great with illness and death. They've both seen their share of it, and are totally practical about enjoying the last time that you have with people. They were not intimidated or afraid and were even reluctant to leave the hospital when I decided we'd spent enough time for grandpa's good (some times... too much company, especially in the form of boisterous children is not good).
They took in everything. Melat saw the bag where the urine goes for a bed-bound person who can't get up for the bathroom. That was a very curious feature but she agreed that something must be done if you're too big for diapers and need to go, but can't.
We brought grandma some lunch in the hospital--a bag of little burgers. Melat wanted to know why we weren't bringing grandpa any burgers. While grandma chewed, I explained to her that grandpa was too weak to eat a burger and that he gets all the food he needs from the IV bag, pointing to the bag suspended above his head and the plastic tube that ran to his hand. "He's not hungry because he gets his food and water in that thing."
"Ok" she said without further questions. (whew... I thought that was going to be harder to explain).
So now, six weeks later, she explained to me that old people are gross. Because they pee in the bag and then get their food from the bag.
I guess I hadn't made it clear that they are different bags.
We lost grandpa later on the day of our visit, but we were all very happy to be there and say our last goodbyes and it was a pleasant visit all around. It's going to take me a little while to explain to her that old people don't eat pee. :-/
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