Death is probably one of the hardest concepts to teach anyone, especially children. It's also something that will affect everyone at one time or another throughout life. There is no way to get out of this world without passing through death first.

Through my life, even as a small child, I have had to deal with the loss of people that I have loved. My grandpa and great grandma both died within a year or so of one another, I was about six or seven years old. In fact it was my cousin and I that found my grandpa when he died. We weren't allowed to go to the funeral and we couldn't figure out why or what was going on. I somehow knew deep inside that they were with Heavenly Father and that everything was all right. I even remember saying good night to them in my prayers, knowing that they were with Heavenly Father. When I was eight years old one of my best friends died of brain cancer. I watched her as she progressively lost functions of her body and memory. I was asked to give a small tribute to her at her funeral. I remember the empty feeling that I felt, the loss, until I realized that she really was all right and not sick anymore and that I would see and know her again. It was like a heavy oppressive burden lifted from my heart. Because of the church that my family and I attended plus the teaching of my parents, I learned at that very early age that when we all die we go back to live with our Heavenly Father. This was a great comfort for me then and now, to know that when we die we go back to a Heavenly Father who loves us.

Dealing with the death of my own child was much more traumatic for me. As we went through this experience we had to find the best way to teach our other children about what had happened to Alison. We found that the best way to teach our children about death was by using simple illustrations. By using a glove, which represents our earthly bodies, and our hand, which represents our spirits, this lesson could be taught. I'll explain further with a simple role play of sorts:

Lets pretend like my hand is our spirit and the glove is our body. Before we came to earth, our spirit was alive (wiggle your hand). When we were born our body and our spirit were joined and our spirit gave our body life (put hand in the glove and wiggle your hand). When we die our spirit leaves our body leaving it lifeless, dead (take your hand out of the glove and lay the glove down.) Our spirit is still alive (wiggle your fingers) and goes back to live with Heavenly Father and we are very happy there. When the time comes for us to be resurrected, our body and spirit are joined again (put your and back in the glove). When they are joined, it is in a perfect state. If your body was sick, it will be well. If it was misshapen or had any flaws, they would be corrected and your body made perfect.

Reassure your child that death is really just a step of his life. It's hard for us who are left on the earth because we miss the people that have died. Our loved ones on the other hand are free from illness and are in the presence of God. They are greeted by all of the other loved ones who have died previously.

We need to mourn the loss of those we love because we are without them and we miss them. We also need to be happy because they are in a much better place. We need to remember that we will be with them again. It helps to talk about them, to remember them, to know that they still love us like we still love them. We must keep them alive in our hearts too. Our hearts will be lighter and ready to go on with life.

I hope this role play is of help to those who may be facing this hard step of life; it has helped me and my family immensely to deal with death and go on confident that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us and our loved ones who have passed on.

In the words of William Wordsworth:

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting. The soul that rises with us: our life star, hath had elsewhere its setting and cometh from a far. Not in entire forgetfulness, not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come from God who is our home. Our home is very far away; when we'll return we can not say. But if our father we'll obey, we'll be with him again someday. And trailing clouds of glory, trailing clouds of glory, trailing clouds of glory will we go to God who is our home."