Death in the Family

Heaven is For Real

Well, it's that topic that people never want to talk about and that is death.  Currently, we are losing a very close family member.  My husbands' grandmother on his mothers' side is dying.  We all call her Gram.  She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 3 years ago, and was given 6 months, 6 months ago.  It will be anytime now and it breaks all of our hearts.  Gram dying has especially affected our seven-year-old.  Our daughter 'E' is very close to Gram.  We have slowly watched Grams health go down hill for the past 3 years.  So, I figured this would be a great topic for anyone that has a child who is/has lost someone. 
The reason I am discussing this is because our daughter will go to bed and come out crying asking us if we are going to die.  It is very hard to watch her cry almost every night worrying about us dying, or worrying about something so much that she cannot sleep at night.

Recently, during my book club we read a book called Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent.  And, I loved it.  This book is amazing and I had my daughter read the children's version first before reading the adult version.  She read through half of the adult version right before bed.  Death is hard concept especially for children.  My goal as a parent is to help her not fear death or death of a family member as much as possible.  However, it is pretty easy to fear since we have no idea what really happens when die.

I do believe what this little boy saw because I remember seeing something very similar when I was little and I did not have a life or death experience.  In fact I remember seeing the part where Colton talks about seeing God and Jesus on one side of him and Michael on the other side, (that is all that I remember seeing, nothing more).  Now, when I saw it I didn't know that it was Jesus on the one side or that it was Michael on the other side.  As I got older my memory of the vision gets worse.  However, I do remember the light that was behind God was like the sunrise and the sunset as exactly the same time.

If you have not read the book Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent.  I highly recommend that you do, you can purchase the adult and the children's book below:


Now, since my daughter has read these two books she is more at peace with death.  Gram has yet to pass.  However, I do know that it will be hard when she does.