Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Survivor

Or "Kids Understand More than You Think They Do."

Little Warrior is getting her memories back from when she was on treatment. She seemingly repressed them for about 6 months.

A week ago, she got in bed and cuddled with me. We talked about things we remembered from last Halloween, including a driveway party at our neighbor's. "And there were 2 ladies there who were cancer survivors," I reminded her. "A survivor is someone who survives cancer. Do you know what 'survive' means?" I didn't think she did, and planned on making some kind of "It's when you go through something difficult but you're okay later and ..." euphemistic statement.

No need. She looked me in the eye and said, "It means you don't die."

Four years old. And yet, a lot older.

1 comment:

Kristina said...

Ohhhhhhh. (sniff)

In our house, we talk about "bad cancer" and "really bad cancer." "Really bad" is our euphemism for dying, I suppose. Tessa knows that people die from cancer - she's met at least one.

Why do children have to think about such things? (Rhetorical question. I know there is no answer.)