Incredible Resiliency

I met with one of my fourth graders today and I was blown away by the level of maturity, emotional strength, and incredible resiliency he possessed.

"How are you today?" I asked him.

"I'm fine. A little sad."

"Oh really? Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yeah. I am sad because my uncle died."

I certainly hadn't expected that.

He went on. "I lost one uncle last year. I was going to ask him to go to the movies with me, but the next day he just died. And now, last week, this other uncle died. I have lost four people now. I only have one uncle left."

What do you even say to that?

As this little guy shared his heart with me we quickly changed roles. He was the teacher, instructing, guiding, teaching, sharing. And I was the student, listening intently to every word he had to offer, transported to when I was a kid, listening to my Grandpa tell a story.

Interestingly enough, my Grandpa is the only person I have lost that was close to me. But I was older, a Senior in College, and he was sick; so even though we hadn't expected his life to end quite so early, we all knew that one day he would make his journey from this one to the next.