On a much sadder note, I learned tonight that one of our neighbors passed away yesterday. I've had some rough conversations with Ms. Thang lately. She's growing up so fast and I'm having a hard time realizing that she's not my baby girl anymore, as much as I want her to be. Saturday we were out in the yard playing catch while dinner grilled and she asked me about puberty, and said she heard about this thing called a period and so we had a "modified talk" (it was the backyard after all!) that didn't involved the S word, but talked about how your body changes and gets ready for a baby etc.On Sunday, we were at our friends across the street for an impromptu BBQ and she told me that her friend's sister had tried to commit suicide the day (or two) before. She's actually really good friends with 2 of the girls in that family, and she was sad and worried about her friends and their sister. She told me the older sister was having a hard time with things, and sad about some stuff. She has been on my mind ever since, and it broke my heart to hear of her passing away suddenly yesterday. Seems somehow her liver was affected and ultimately it failed and caused her death. I will have to tell Ms. Thang tomorrow and I know it will crush her. I wish I could keep her safe from all this "grown up" stuff and protect her from the heartache she is going to feel.... but I know in my heart that the best thing I can do is hope I've taught her the skills she needs to deal with life, and let her grow.
1 comment:
What a sad thing to have to talk to her about. It's so sad that kids have to take on so much at such a young age.
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