See how they grow

My kids are growing up so fast. I'm not just talking about inches but the experiences that shape them. Kids are not strangers to the concept of death, seeing umpteen murders on TV, hearing about disasters around the world losing grandparents. The thing is that these occurrences (even grandparents) are not really close to home or personal.
Two nights ago Timothy "Timbo" Geminden died of a rare cancer at the age of 6 1/2. Timbo attended the same school my kids go to and they knew him and were part of the on-going all school effort to encourage the Geminden family during Timbo's 4 years of treatments. Both Blaise and Alaric want to attend the funeral to be held on Monday as there is no school.
Facing death at such close range in someone so young has a tremendous impact, especially on kids. They ask so many questions, admit to fears that they used to hide and lose some of the swagger that eight years olds in particular seem to have. It's a tough way to gain a bit of maturity.