Lady Bug...Fly Away Home...

The other day Rebecca found a lady bug crawling along the sidewalk (since there was NO snow yet!). She took it home with her and made it a little home.
The home was full of leaves and twigs. Despite her efforts at hospitality, the lady bug flew away home to that great lady bug cloud in the sky. That is to say, it kicked the proverbial bucket.

So we left the spotted corpse in our front garden. This morning we arose to find it had snowed last night covering our garden with a fresh white blanket. Rebecca was frantic. Her poor little lady bug was covered in snow and she would be cold.

I explained that all that remained of her lady bug was a body so the bug would not be cold. The part of the lady bug that had life and feeling had moved on!
"Is it in heaven?" she asked.
Now I don't know if there is a lady bug heaven but death makes me uncomfortable and in the interest of ending this conversation I said, "Yes. Your lady bug is in lady bug heaven."

This did not end the conversation or my dicomfort with the topic of death.

Rebecca asked if she would someday die and see her ladybug again.
I said, "sure".
Isabella then pointed out that there was only one way to get to heaven, and that is...
TO GET HIT BY A CAR.

Whaaaaaa????
Suddenly all the times I had said, "don't run onto the street, you could get killed by a car" came rushing into my mind. Ohhh! Hit by car = Die = Heaven.
Logical.

Without thinking I corrected her, "No there are lots of other ways to die".
OH MY GOODNESS! WHY DID I JUST SAY THAT??? WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???

Both girls looked at me, "like how?"

I was like a ship rat on a sinking ship, my mind scurried around in a panic looking for the quickest way out of the conversation. I don't want to make my kids fear death or list off hundreds of ways you could possibly die...Mayday! Mayday! Get me off this topic!

"Well..." I paused as I tried to think of what a responsible adult might say, "Death is something that happens to everyone at some point. It is a part of life. " (Good recovery, sounds very official and they are still listening...keep talking...)
"You can die from being old when your body starts to wear down."

Isabella interrupted me here, "No mommy that's not true. Gigi is old and she doesn't die!"
Rebecca added, "Yeah!"
And they both left the table and went to play with their dolls.

Phew! They think I'm full of shit. Thank goodness. I don't want to be the one who explains life and death to them - what do I know about that stuff?

Now I have to go pray and ask God not to let Gigi die for at least another 20 years. By then I think they could handle it. And so could I.