When i was growing up we had a few deaths in the family, grandparents, aunts and uncles,family cat and hamster, all in a short period of time,

my mum sat us down and explained death in her own unique way....

As we have had a few members lose a pet lately I thought I would retell the story in the hope it gives some comfort as it did with my siblings and I as children!

so here you go.........


Bill, Ben and Bob are two dragon fly lavae, every day they have a whale of a time, chasing each other around their little pond. The pond they live in is just the best! it has a great number of roots to hide in, squishy mud at the bottom to play in, fish to talk to, other worms and a huge variation of food to choose from. daily life was just play, play play.
What could be better?
But one day, Ben floated towards the surface of the pond, Bill and Bob teased him for a minute as he went too close to the top... but he stayed at the top......
They called him down, but as he seemed to empty at the surface he just called back saying it was his time and he had to go....
and a shell of his former worm fell to the bottom.
Bill and Ben were distraught...
But then they noticed that other worms just seemed to end their time and float to the surface...
They talked about it...
They both decided that if either of them got the urge to go through the surface that if it was ok, then they would come back to tell the other.
The days went past....play play play....
Then one day, Bill got an uncontrolable urge to push through the surface....he couldn't help himself, and despite Bob calling him back, he had to go...
"Its all right" he called down to Bob " I will come back and let you know what its like"
**************
Bill awoke....he stretched his wings....
WINGS... wow, he tried waving them... he was.....he was... wow he was swimming in air...and ....OH MY.... the pond had been dull greys and greens.. but now there were every green under the sun... Trees......animals...huge animals..flowers...blue sky.. oh the colours...pinks, purples, yellow, reds, orange, violet... even he himself was a striking electric blue colour...Bill flew around for several hours just taking in the new wonderous sights from above the surface...and his pond.. well it was just a puddle compared to the lakes he could see now...
HIS POND....
HE MUST GET BACK AND TELL BOB..
Bill flew back to his pond, all excited to tell Bob about the new wonderous plane that he had entered... but when he got back, no matter what he tried, he couldn't break through the water surface...
******************************************
My mum explained to us... we are like the worms... when we die, we go to a much better place, our body is like the worm shell left, but inside us is a much more beautiful being that can then live on the next plane... heaven if you like, but there is a barrier between the two areas, so our loved ones can not come back to tell us how wonderful it is or that they are ok.

***
Probably changed a bit over the years but anyway, it always helped me understand and not be so sad about death, hope it does the same for anyone hurting.