Children are very understanding and curious about death. They are capable of sensing what the adults around them are experiencing. This section helps adults explain to their children what has happened to the very special person whom they have just lost.
| Why do people die? |
| Dying is a natural part of life. All living things - plants, animals, even people are special parts of God's natural world. nature almost always gives us long, healthy lives. Like all other living things, people grow old and reach the end of life. This is called death, or dying. |
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| Does death hurt? |
| Doctors tell us that death is not usually painful. Especially with old people, dying is almost always quiet. When someone dies in an accident, they often feel no pain at all because death comes so quickly. Even when someone is sick or hurt for a long time before death, special medicines and treatment take away much of the pain. |
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| When someone dies are they being punished? |
| Death is never a punishment. It is almost always natural. Time wears out important parts of our bodies. After many, many years these parts cannot work anymore. people die when these parts - the heart, for example - stop working. |
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| Why can't doctors and hospitals stop someone from dying? |
| Many times they do. Yet sometimes, even though they have tried their best, someone dies. Doctors help people live long, healthy lives. Because of what doctors have learned, people live much longer now than they did when your grandparents were children. Hospitals help people too. Doctors and nurses work in hospitals to make sick and injured people better. people go to hospitals to become healthy, not to die. |
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| Where do dead people go? |
| Most people believe that when someone dies, part of that person lives on and goes to Heaven. this part is not like a heart or brain or any other part of us that doctors have to take care of. it is the part that lets us feel love and happiness. it never gets sick. it never wears out. This part is called the spirit. People all over the world have always believed that our spirits live on. There is no reason to think that this is not true. |
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| Why did someone I love have to die? Why couldn't it have been someone else? |
Sometimes death doesn't seem fair.
Of all the people in the whole world, why did this one special person have to die?
Almost everyone, no matter who they are or where they live, is loved by others. Almost everyone will be missed by others when they die. Right now someone just like you somewhere else in the world is asking the same question: Why did someone i love have to die? Remember, we all will someday lose someone we love. |
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| Is death like sleeping? |
| Death is nothing at all like sleep. People and animals sleep to rest and stay healthy. Sleep gives hard-working parts of our body time to store up strenght. Think of how good you feel after sleeping. you feel good because your body is rested and ready for another day. When someone dies, their body stops working. it is not resting. It's job is over. |
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| Why are people buried when they die? |
| After people die we place their bodies in cemeteries. This is a gentle way to say goodbye to someone we love. A cemetery gives us a quiet, pretty place to come and think about that person. A visit to a cemetery can bring back pleasant memories. |
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| What are funerals for? |
| One of the nieces things about being a person is that we are able to feel love for another person. This does not end when that person dies. Funerals are for sharing loving feelings about someone who has died. They give us a chance to remember with others that goodness and joy that person brought to our lives. This takes away some of the sadness that we feel. It also helps us understand how much others care too. |
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