How do you explain to an innocent 9 year old girl what happened at the horrible massacres that happened in the mall and grade school this past week??
This weekend I had the privilege of spending some alone time with my granddaughter. We went shopping and saw a movie and then had Mexican food! It was a very stormy,windy, rainy,day. We got our movie tickets first,and then ran for the closet mall entrance. With movie tickets and credit card still in hand we sat down on the nearest bench in the entry way leading into the mall. As I was opening my purse to put our movie tickets away for later,I became aware of my Granddaughters earnest words expressing her feelings about the past weeks shootings in a school and mall. I told myself "be quite and listen she needs to talk." We probably sat on that bench for 10 to 15 minutes while she talked. I can't even remember everything that was said,because I was so struck by her candor and I was so focused on keeping my mouth shut. I do remember we ended the conversation with we have a God that loves us, and someday when we go to heaven we won't have to worry about any of this kind of awful stuff happening.
We went shopping and bought a couple of cute things for her to wear.We laughed ate popcorn and candy. She ordered a virgin mango margarita at the Mexican restaurant and ate tamales. We had a good time.
It makes me sad though that part of my Granddaughters innocence was robbed from her by the selfish, self-centered act of two mentally disturb people. I can have some peace knowing that this world is not the end of our lives,and that when we die our lives really just start!!! That I got the rare privilege to share that with her in a very,very simple way is the best Christmas gift that a grammy could get.
It is sad that this generation has had to see and experience so many horrible things. But it is wonderful that she had you to spill her words out on. Just listening is super hard and I too would have been concentrating on not talking!
ReplyDeleteYou are a wonderful Grammy!