One Amazing Thing: Emily’s Cat Funeral

I'm sure that anyone who is a parent has had many amazing moments that have given them insight into their child's thoughts and feelings in a way that surpasses what might be learned by just sitting and talking with their child. This is a short story of one such moment and I call this story "Emily's Cat Funeral."

One summer day many years ago I was doing some painting in an upstairs bedroom at the back of our old house in a rural area of Jackson County. I happened to glance out the window into the back yard and saw my daughter, Emily, who was then about 7 years old, scampering across the lawn with something in her hands.

Emily sat down on the ground in the shade of the catalpa tree and started digging a little hole in the soft dirt at the back of the yard. As I watched her, unseen, she opened up a shoebox she had been carrying and carefully removed the two kittens that had not survived more than an hour after their birth that morning. Emily gently wrapped the tiny kittens in a small towel and laid them side by side in the little grave she had dug. I watched her cover them with the dirt and place a cross she had made out of popsicle sticks at the head of the grave. Emily got to her knees, bowed her head and folded her little hands in a short prayer at the graveside. Then she got up, gathered her digging scoop and shoebox and ran back across the sunny yard into the house. If I hadn't known it before that moment, I knew right then what a great little heart she had. She's still that way today.