New Little Friend

Whit had a new friend over to play the other day. He inquired about some artwork on the wall and was intrigued when he found out that Whit had two brothers. Of course, the question prevailed... where is this other brother? I explained to him that Whit had a brother, Paul, who died a couple of years ago. He nodded thoughtfully and returned to the boys' room to play.

I was in the kitchen when he returned. Did Paul die of the swine flu, he wanted to know. No, I explained, he was very, very sick with a disease called cancer. Then our new little friend had a lot of questions about how long Paul was sick (I think in his 6-year-old mind, you are sick for a couple of days... maybe a week, and then you get better). I saw the bewilderment in his face as I tried to explain to him that Paul was sick for years - sometimes he would feel good and then he would feel badly again. Once he had enough information to process, he trotted off to play again.

In a little while, he came back to ask some more questions. At some point, it came up that Paul was bald for a while. When I told him this, his eyes got big and he immediately asked to see pictures of Paul. Well, howdy, I can tell you I was thrilled to oblige. I pulled out a photo album that a dear friend made that we keep on the coffee table, and poured over pictures of Paul in all his different hairstyles.

Then New Little Friend caught a glimpse of all of Paul's 24 cars that are lined up in our china cabinet. Being very astute at the fact that these precious toys are locked behind glass, he asked, "He doesn't like anybody playing with those even though he's dead?" I explained that these were just a few of Paul's cars, and I asked if he wanted to see the rest. As we made our way into the guest bedroom and I reached under the bed to pull out and dust off the car collection, New Little Friend said, "I bet you miss Paul a lot, don't you?" I sat down on the floor with this little boy and Paul's Nascar collection - not knowing whether I wanted to cry or jump for joy - and agreed with him that yes, I miss Paul VERY much.

When we moved to the closet, and I pulled out yet another huge vat of more cars, New Little Friend couldn't contain his excitement. "Wow. Paul had a LOT of cars. You must've bought him everything he wanted because he was sick." Now it was MY turn to be amazed. He'd pegged us in a matter of minutes!

I don't get to talk about Paul as much as I would like. I don't get to see anyone enjoying his Nascar collection as much as I would like. I don't get to show off pictures as much as I would like. Thank you, New Little Friend. Come back whenever you want... and make it soon...