Family Picture

A child began this school year.  His father passed away the year before when this child was two.  In the beginning of each school year, we ask the children to bring in family photos and we put them together in a book.  Each child has one page.  This helps the children with “beginning of the year blues”.  When the children feel sad or are missing family, they may go and look at the book and find their page.  It very quickly becomes the favorite book in the classroom.  Before we put the book together, we allow the children to come up and share their family with the rest of the class.  It was his turn to share.  He came up and shared his page.  He said,” this is my dad and he died.”  I said that my daddy died too.  The part of the story that most touched my heart was at lunch that day.  He and I were sitting next to each other and he again said that his daddy died and again I said I know and my daddy died too.  It happened to be thundering.  He said,” my mommy told me that when it is thundering that is my daddy bowling in heaven.”  He looked at me and said, “maybe our daddies are bowling together.”  This child and I talked many times about memories of our daddies.  I hope it helped him in some small way. I will always remember and tell this story as it always touches my heart.