Grandma Nancy's Arms and Legs

Kids are notorious for asking tough questions. I still have it on my to-do list to look up why flamingoes stand on only one foot. And I'm constantly referring her to her daddy for anything related to how cars work or what time raccoons wake up in the evening. But then there are the big stumpers - how babies are made, the value of money, and what happens when we die. For better or worse, my Bean has been exposed to conversations and concepts of death from an early ages mostly because she's got a morbid mother. But she, too, seems to have a slight natural propensity for dark things, a little Wednesday Adams in her. 

For example, her most memorable moment in Ireland was the dead pig - explaining how the pig had an infection from having its tail removed, then how it died in its cage with other the other pigs who just trampled it, and the subsequent stinky smell. 

Once, when she came upon a slug apparently eating a dead bird, she was fascinated, her curiosity piqued. Then she surprised me with her sadistic proclamation - if she were alone she would STOMP the dead bird. 

And then the other day she asked me when Beebee would "be dead" (sorry, Dad). She seemed to understand that if he were dead he wouldn't be able to hang out with her on Wednesdays. 

Tonight she inquired about Grandma Nancy. 

"Does Grandma Nancy not have arms or legs?" she asked while I was clearing the table after dinner. She was in the kitchen, too, practicing her letters on the chalk wall. 

"Ummmm that's kind of a hard question to answer," I giggled. "When she was alive she had arms and legs. But she's dead now, so she doesn't really have a body at all."

"Look! I drawed her ... Doesn't she look pretty?!?"

Ultimately, she seemed appeased by my vague answer, and gave Grandma Nancy's portrait two legs and some earrings. 

While I am so very grateful for a number of things about this interaction - her eagerness to ask questions, her interest in Grandma Nancy, her evolving art skills - I am also fully aware why even atheists might reference heaven as a place where the dead reside.