That's what you get for going to Walmart....

As if my eldest child needs more encouragement to ponder what happens when we die. He has such an interest already. Seriously kid, you are only 3 1/2 years old. Mommy really does not want to talk about this subject any more.

So, we were taking a quick stop in Walmart to grab some beer for our daddy since he was at home mowing the lawn. Nothing like a cold beer after yard work with a little basketball on TV. There was a sweet old man in the beer aisle trying to decide what flavor beef jerkey to have for dinner. (I am guessing there is a reason why those two items are together?) My children gravitate towards anyone who makes eye contact with them and this guy was an easy target. He started teasing the boys and telling him he had a really "tall forehead", due to his extreme baldness. My boys starting asking him if he had kids. He replied no, but then proceeded to explain to Danny and Josh that he had a son and grandkids but that they had died in a fiery car crash.
say what?
Time for mommy to check in and start picking up the pieces here. Thankfully my children are at peace about their current eternal perspective. Danny just figures that Heaven is so great that death doesn't look too bad. He will tell me often that when people die we are sad, but we are also happy because they go to Heaven.
So, this little horrific detail didn't phase my two little guys.
We continued to engage this sweet(not sure if that qualifies anymore) old man in more conversation. He gave us a few more details about the crash(dude, that's enough!) We found out that he was 89 years old and he admired the pretty blue eyes staring back at him in the form of a questioning little boy. We thanked him for talking with us and headed to the check out line with our goods.

Well, that doesn't happen every day, but it get me thinking about the lives of people under the surface. On the outside this man was smiling and happy to converse with my social kids, but inside he was hurting. It took less than 1 minute for his pain of losing a loved one and the wondering of "what could have been" to begin. I wonder if he lives alone? Does he still shed tears every night or have they long ago dried up? Was that why he was able to share with us? Or maybe, hopefully, we were able to give off a good vibe of people who care about his suffering?
Hopefully he has someone other than Walmart shoppers on a beer run to share with daily.
And by the way, sharing the details of a car crash with babies is probably not a great idea. Thankfully, my children are uniquely able to process difficult information. I hope.