A 4-Year Old and His Beloved Nemo

Look at the pride on that little face!

Two weeks ago Cade went to the fair with Allan. They played the "Ping Pong Ball" game. (You know the one....you toss a ping pong ball and hope it lands on the jar and not between the jars.) Cade nailed the jar on his first try! Allan thought Cade had won a little stuffed animal. He was totally surprised when the carnie handed him a bag of water containing a goldfish. Cade was thrilled! Allan, however, was less than pleased as he had to carry the fish around the fair for 4 hours. (Cade's 4 year old exuberance was too much for the goldfish who wouldn't have made it out of the parking lot alive if Allan hadn't intervened.)

Cade greeted each morning with a cheery "Hello, Nemo. I love you" and ended each evening with "Good night, Nemo. I love you". Cade would carefully carry Nemo's bowl to into the living room whenever he played cars or watched TV. Cade loved Nemo.

Last night the inevitable happened. After Cade went to bed, but before I turned in, Nemo went to forever swim in that big pond in the sky. Now, this would be Cade's first real experience with death and I wasn't sure what to do. Having seen how gross dead fish get (the beta/plant crazy a few years ago), I decided to flush Nemo and explain to Cade in the morning.

This morning before Cade could make it to the kitchen, I took his hand and led him to the living room. I sat him on my lap and told him that Nemo had died during the night. Cade sniffled, and in a very quivery voice said, "But I loved him so much." He then buried his head on my shoulder and I waited for the sobbing. Cade straightened up and asked me if I threw Nemo away. "I flushed him down the toilet." Cade said "Ok", hugged me, and told me again how much he loved Nemo.

And that was it. Cade then got down from my lap and got dressed for school. There were no tears and no further sadness.

Whew!