Today, Elizabeth brought a note home from school saying that Mr. Cowart died this morning.  Ugh!  I felt terrible for thinking that he had flaked out by leaving the class in the middle of the year.  Elizabeth said that the school counselors had spent the afternoon in her class, talking with the kids about Mr. Cowart and helping them make cards for his family.  I thought that was a good way to help them deal, at least as a class.

When Elizabeth showed me the note, she said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”  Later, though, she cried and said, “Why do all these people I know have to die!”  As far as I know, the only other person she has known that died was her grandmother, and that was before she was old enough to remember.  Still, she has a lot of unresolved feelings about that, including the fact that she doesn’t remember her grandmother.

My mom said she was going to send me some things about helping a child deal with grief, but right now I’m kind of at a loss.  I guess the best way to handle it is to just let her talk about it when she wants to.