From the Mouth of a 5 Year Old!

Tonight, as my daughter and I were driving home from gymnastics, jamming out to Hannah Montanna, Claire told me that we needed to take a trip!
I was still jamming to the music, yes, its true, I like Miley Cyrus!
I said, "uh, huh, so where do you want to go? She told me that we needed to visit Nonna...aka my mother.

Let me start by telling you that my mother is no longer living. She died in 2002 at the age of 58 of lung cancer, and my daughter was never able to meet her, so I guess whenever my children bring up my mother I tend to get a little weird. Claire proceeded to say "Mom, we need to go visit Nonna at her grave site." I thought to myself, why is she bringing this up all of a sudden? "Well, ok Claire we can go visit Nonna, but I don't know when.
My mother is buried in Nebraska and we live in Iowa. I said "honey, why do you want to see Nonna 's grave all of a sudden? Claire then said, "Nonna needs some red flowers and some lipstick and oh, some high heels!" I have to tell you I laughed at that one and knew my mother laughed also. Sorry mom, but it sounds a little like a street walker to me! I told Claire that flowers would be a wonderful idea, but that real ones wouldn't survive in this cold weather. Well, that didn't seem to bother her, she said we could get fake ones. Then she said, "Mom, when we get there, can I see Nonna in the box"? I truly almost swerved off the road, I was so shocked at that question. Dear God, what do I say to this child, who is asking to see my mother? Claire said, "Mom did you hear me?' I said, "yes honey, I heard you, but we don't need to do that?" Why not? comes the voice from the backseat. I told here that Nonna wasn't really in the box anymore, because she is up in Heaven with God.

My kids know that Nonna died of lung cancer caused by many years of smoking. When my son was little, he would point at people smoking and say, "don't they know they are going to die? He would then tell us he will never ever smoke! But Claire doesn't always get it. She then said, "Mom, if I smoke then I can go and be with Nonna, right?" Ugh, it just kept getting worse, when will we be home so I can get away from these questions? "No Claire, that is not true, nor what Nonna would want you to do. When God feels it is our time to be with him, he will let us know and then you will see Nonna!"
As I pull into the garage my husband greets us at the door. He could tell that we were having a serious discussion by the looks on both of our faces, and asked Claire if she was ok. She told him how she misses Nonna and that she just wanted to give her a big hug. At that point I had to leave the room to get myself together. As I was leaving the room, my husband gave Claire a hug and said "this hug is from Nonna, now give me a hug for her!"

Husbands, what life savers they can be!