When Minna’s father passes away we get a brief look into the funeral reception held at the family home.  Minna and her younger brother are frightened by the amount of people inside their home and Minna is especially disturbed that people are wearing black.  She feels like that represents the coal that killed her father and that her father would have preferred the “bright colors of the day” instead.

We discussed funerals and mourning – their meanings and what they may look like.  Doo forgot what a graveyard was so I showed her a photo (she has seen pretend ones at Disneyland) and she also asked to see a picture of a casket.

We also discussed her Mammy’s (Daddy’s mother) funeral a little bit.  Mammy passed away a year before Doo was born.  After a little discussion she wanted to see a photo of Mammy (she has seen plenty plus video but I think she wanted to feel close to her) and then also wanted to see a photo of the dress I wore which I did not have readily available.  We had talked about graveyards and burying a person in a casket so I also mentioned cremation since this is what we did for Mammy.  And how Mammy’s ashes were spread in the Atlantic near her Auntie and in the Pacific near us.

Tomorrow is our last lesson for The Rag Coat and then time for another book before we take a week off.