Last night

     My mother called last night to inform me that my dad was back in the hospital for his heart condition.  He had a heart attack last year. I took the phone call in the dining room while Eden and Michelle were playing on the computer.  He's okay, he'd just had some difficulty with breathing and chest pains during the weekend and it was more of a preemptive type of visit from what mom was saying.  However, the call led to a deeper discussion.

    Once I got off the phone, I casually remarked to Michelle, 'Dad's in the hospital.' Is he okay?  Yeah, just kind of a checkup.  Mom thinks he'll be fine...  This perked Eden right up.  'Is he gonna die?' was her first question, to which had me and Michelle exchanging slightly ominous looks.  The conversation then veered to  basic life and death questions and Grandpa should be fine type of stuff. And finally to questions about mom's death.

    Eden asked why her mom, at such a young age would have a heart attack.  I knew this was the time to give her more details.  It made sense, it was natural.  I stumbled through explaining that mom had problems with substance abuse, how this was bad and how it led to her death.  How this was the actual cause of the heart attack.  It was quickly obvious that she hadn't really believed the heart attack explanation whole-heartedly. 

     She was surprisingly concerned with how much her mom had taken.  Like, physically the amount.  Which led to a bit of conversation to addiction and how a persons' consumption can grow to dangerous amounts over time, which then leads to overdoses.  I kept trying to pull the idea back to 'any amount is dangerous and drugs are bad' out of reflex.  We took some time to look at the death certificate.  Go over more of the details. But, this was boring compared to the 'coolness' of our safe and the other mysterious documents held within.  We soon found ourselves going over passports, old photos and other strange documents.

     Overall, I'm constantly surprised at how well Eden handles these conversations.  Well, maybe not well, but differently than I expect.  She definitely appreciated the new information and I think it's just one more piece of the puzzle she's completing within her.  She's pretty awesome.