Notes: Talking about death to our children is almost like talking about sex to our children.   I have found many variations of the above childhood poem on the Internet that avoid the mention of death.   Some parents offer the explanation for their avoidancee that they don't want their children to think about death just before going to sleep.   I don't recall anyone growing up without an understanding of death.   Almost everyone is confronted with the death of a dog, cat, bird, fish, pet or relative at sometime or another before reaching adulthood.

Regarding the death of children: The Greeks had a saying that: "The greatest tragedy for a Mother or Father is to lose a child."   Moreover, I learned that the Greeks had another saying, "When people say they can stand no more, the fact that they are still standing means that they can stand more."   Regarding suffering in the old and disabled: Death is a blessed relief to eternal pain and suffering.   Also, people commit suicide for many reasons other than pain.   And Shakespeare took a step further regarding all human complaints when he said, "Perhaps he doth protest too much."

A number of centuries after the Greeks, Alexander Pope wrote that people are composed of reason and emotion.   A person who is ruled by reason is like a ship with a man at the wheel and no wind in the sails.   A person who is ruled by emotion is like a ship with a full wind in the sails and no rudder.   People must be a balance of reason and emotion to live life or just survive.

Add a few more centuries after Pope to when I was 12 years old.   I rode the streetcar almost every day past a cemetery where the epitaph in three lines on a certain tombstone always seemed to speak to me.   "To Know, To Understand, To Love."   I always took it to mean that a person must first gain knowledge to reach understanding in order to love others and the life around us.

While going to school, I worked in nursing homes and hospitals.   I learned that there are two types of death.   The first type is the upset individual who swears at the nurses trying to help them and always seems miserable.   They usually wanted another chance to relive their misspent lives.   They went kicking and moaning to their deaths.   The second type is exemplified by a wonderful old lady that could quote Charles Dickens and another old lady that could quote Robert Burns and Charles Dickens.   Both of these beautiful souls laid back on their pillows and waited for God to take them peacefully because they had lived their lives the best they could and didn't want a second chance to live again.

As a last note to my education about death, I learned that the body on the autopsy table was just a lump of matter.   The most important part, the personality, the soul, or the spirit was gone.   I knew then that I would marry someone based on their personality not their looks.   And the best thing that ever happened to me is that my wife, Lois, said yes over 41 years ago.