I am way behind on my emails and web surfing and blog reading, so I apologize for not getting this out sooner.

Remember this article I wrote about little Julian? I got notice through his CarePages that he passed away Saturday morning. The little guy fought hard the whole way, and from the way his mother, Mimi, explained it, they stayed there touching him and talking him through it; letting him know it was okay to go.

 If you would like information on arrangements, address for cards, etc., please visit his CarePage at http://www.carepages.com/, register to use (it’s free) and search for JuliansWorld (all one word).  She also requests that in leiu of flowers, that donations are made to Cook Children’s in Fort worth (www.cookchildrens.org) or to Make A Wish fundation ( http://www.wish.org/ ).

Okay, a question was posed to me earlier today about how to tell your young child about death.  Particularly about a person that has died, as opposed to a pet (although in my head, my pets are people, too).  I’m not 100% sure what I’d say to Gavin if we had to tell him that someone he knows has died, but I think I’d actually use the words “dead/death” and mention that the person went to Heaven.  I’m not sure how much he’d understand, but he really wouldn’t need much of an explanation at this age.  I mean, he’s only 3-1/2 years old, so he’s not really going to understand about a soul or how the loved one will stay in your heart, etc.  I think I would make sure he’s having a quiet moment, without the distraction of toys or movies, and I think it might go something like this:

and I would probably leave it like that.  We, thankfully, haven’t had to try to explain death to Gavin, but a friend of mine with an almost 4-year old has been hit with the decision on what to tell her son about the passing of a family friend (I believe the deceased is quite a bit older…) .  What would you do?  Any of you more experienced moms out there have any ideas or suggestions?