My first aquaintance with death came at age nine, when my pet rabbit, Snowball, died. Yes, I, the future Naming Queen, had a pet rabbit named Snowball. I was NINE, people, and I thought it was highly orginal and creative, and unlike so many pets named Snowball, mine in fact did look like a snowball, so bite me.
So anyway, he died and I was crushed. Now, I'm not going to bash my parents here, I'll just say that they didn't understand me very well, and I was lucky my aunt visiting for the weekend on her way through town. My father was just going outside dig a hole and drop him in, but my Aunt Kitty stopped and stalled him. She asked me if I wanted to wrap him in something, and I brought out this little mini-quilt I had just finished, grateful for the suggestion. She cut a little bit of his hair off and put it in a little box for me.
She gave me a little goodbye ritual, essentially, a way to say goodbye. One I realized today that I still use, more or less. I thought of my Aunt Kitty today as I saved a feather from my little Ikey's bird cage and cleaned up the scraps of the fabric I had wrapped him in.
A ritual that makes me feel as thought I've properly said goodbye and can remember and let go all at once.
A ritual that makes me feel at peace with the harshest fact in life, death.
Thank you, Auntie.
So anyway, he died and I was crushed. Now, I'm not going to bash my parents here, I'll just say that they didn't understand me very well, and I was lucky my aunt visiting for the weekend on her way through town. My father was just going outside dig a hole and drop him in, but my Aunt Kitty stopped and stalled him. She asked me if I wanted to wrap him in something, and I brought out this little mini-quilt I had just finished, grateful for the suggestion. She cut a little bit of his hair off and put it in a little box for me.
She gave me a little goodbye ritual, essentially, a way to say goodbye. One I realized today that I still use, more or less. I thought of my Aunt Kitty today as I saved a feather from my little Ikey's bird cage and cleaned up the scraps of the fabric I had wrapped him in.
A ritual that makes me feel as thought I've properly said goodbye and can remember and let go all at once.
A ritual that makes me feel at peace with the harshest fact in life, death.
Thank you, Auntie.
1 Comments:
lol, there's something great about that random influential aunt in everybody's lives...you gotta love em.
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