On the Bus to Heaven

My 5 year old son is very inquisitive. 


He is always asking questions and wanting to know more. Questions on most days include, "How do Earthquakes happen?" "Do valleys move?" "Why do Volcanoes erupt?" "Why does the Earth Spin?" And "Where do babies come from?" That last question always leaves me stumped. I take a hard gulp, a deep breath and then spurt out my usual-planned-very-thought-out answer, "When two people love each other, they get married, then they ask God for a baby,God puts the baby in the mommy's belly and the doctor help gets it out". For most of the questions he asks, I can give straight forward answers. But the baby question always leaves me stumped, doubting I answered it the right way, wondering if I should have even answered it at all. There are just some subjects I don't feel I should explore with my five year old son, no matter how smart he is.


A couple years back, my husband's friend's father passed away. A couple times, he went over to console his friend and to be by his side. When my son questioned, where daddy was going, we answered that he was going to see his friend because he was sad. When he asked, Why? We just answered that his dad was sick. Mistake. George quickly demanded, "I want to go to the hospital and see him." So there we dove, into the question abyss. So we explained, sometimes when people get very very sick, they can't get better they die and go to Heaven. George just looked at us, and I could see his mind going, but he was silent and then went on about Thomas the Train and Lightning McQueen, we exhaled wished,hoped, and crossed our fingers and toes and thought that was easy, end of discussion.


That next day we took our usual walk around the neighborhood. It takes us through the center of town and by the nearest bus stop. As we passed the stop, George blurted out, 
"Uncle A's (we'll call him A) daddy better hurry up!" 


Confused. "Why?" I asked, "Where is is going?" 


"He better hurry!" George repeated, "He'll miss the bus to Heaven."


And what if it's that simple.


This past weekend, I attended my grandmother's funeral. She was the 3rd person on my mother's side to pass away in as many years. The latest being her sister June, who died from cancer this past July and 2 years early, her sister Sharon, had also passed away. Her funeral was a bit bittersweet. Even though I was saddened by her passing, I was happy that hopefully she was joined with the souls she mourned for while here. Just maybe she boarded that big white, warm plushy bus. And waiting for her, were her daughters, they joined hands and were finally together again, as they welcomed her on the bus to Heaven.