My guest last week and again this week is Melissa Amodeo.  Last week, Melissa told of the death of her Grandpa Alex when she was a child.  Today, she tells a remarkable way in which she prepared her own children for death.  I know you will be inspired by her wisdom.

 My daughters and I both love reading and writing.  We took on the tradition of summer reading together when they started school.  On summer breaks, we always have enlisted in the Library Reading Program and read as many books as possible while enjoying the lazy days of summer, soaking in the sun.

In the spring of 2009, while volunteering to work at my children’s school’s yearly Book Fair, I came across a book named, Each Little Bird That Sings, by Deborah Wiles.  The book seemed interesting.  It was about a 10-year-old girl whose family owned a funeral home.  She grew up around funerals.  The book’s introduction seemed like it dealt with death which is a part of life, but in a way that a child could comprehend and with light humor.  It seemed well written, so I decided to buy the book and read it first.  I had intentions of making this book part of our summer reading time together.  I read the book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

That summer, each day my daughters and I would sit closely together and I would read to them pages of the book.  It talked about the reality of death and put it in a manner that a child could understand.  It also included real emotions like sadness and humor.  My daughters enjoyed the book as much as I did.

Little did we know the summer of 2009 would start a domino effect of deaths of close family members. The book prepared, not only my children, but myself for what would come. We lost 11 close family members and a close family friend in the months that would follow.  In one year, my children would go to more funerals than most people go to in a lifetime.  Every funeral they went to, they knew the person and they had to deal with grief.

They learned to not fear death and to trust God. They also learned more about Heaven.  They learned that death is a part of life, but it is not the end of life, only the end of life as we know it here on earth. Their faith grew.  They began to talk differently and to experience funerals differently.  They began to show compassion to the survivors of the ones who passed on.

I saw so much evidence of the things they learned when my daughter’s best friend’s father passed away in the summer of 2013.  She wanted to be there for her friend. At the wake service, she and her sister sat next to her friend and her sister the entire evening. The night before, she was concerned about how to help her friend since this was so serious.  I told her, “You do not have to say anything, just be there for her. She will never forget those who were there for her.”

So, that is what she and her sister did.  They sat there and they were there for her friend and her sister.  I think that was pretty brave and pretty compassionate for two preteen girls to do.  It not only helped the bereaved, it helped them, too.

Who would have thought that a Library Summer Reading Program would be instrumental in preparing Melissa’s two children for up-coming deaths in their family?

And that, my friends, is what this website and my book, Helping Hurting Children is all about — encouraging parents, grandparents or any caring adult, to get involved in helping a child cope with losses.

My thanks to Melissa for sharing her heart-warming stories and her wisdom. Leave her a comment and tell her how she inspired you to get involved in helping hurting children.

Join me here next week, where I will give you other suggestions on how to help a child going through the death of a loved one.