Gran'dad

My dad died three years ago tomorrow. When he died, Katherine was just a bitty baby and Caroline was close to the age that Katherine is now. I guess it makes sense, therefore, that Katherine's questions about her gran'dad and death seem to be coming with greater and greater frequency these days. She didn't really seem to grasp the truth of my dad until pretty recently. For quite a while, when we talked about Gran'dad, she would make the matter of fact statements that children make like, "Yeah, he's dead."

Now though, the questions are here and they are as hard to answer as they were when Caroline asked them three years ago.

A sampling is below:

"Does Gran'dad live in a hole?"
"How do you die?"
"Do you die like this (as she lay on the floor) without blinking or breathing."
"Are there ants in the ground near Gran'dad?"
"What's cancer?"

I can only hope that my answers are comforting and that Gran'dad is looking down on her from somewhere wishing he could answer all her questions himself.