Annie, 6 years old, gets home from school.
She had her first family planning lesson at school.
Her mother, very interested, asks, “How did it go?”
“I nearly died of shame!” She answers!
“Why?” Her Mother asked.
Annie said, “Kate from down the road says that the stork brings babies. Sally next door said you can buy babies at the orphanage. Pete in my class says you can buy babies at the hospital.”
Her mother answers laughingly, “But that’s no reason to be ashamed?”
“No… well, that’s how I felt when I had to tell them that we were so poor…. that you and daddy had to make me yourselves!”
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The son asks his dad,
“Dad,” he said thoughtfully, “what can I do if I want to live forever?”
The father turned to his son with a half-smile that spoke more than words ever could.
“All you have to do,” he said, “is get married.”
The boy blinked, clearly not expecting that answer. He sat up straighter, curiosity piqued.
“Really?” he asked, eyes wide. “Marriage makes you live forever?”
His father leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees with a long, slow breath. There was something amused in his eyes, but also something knowing—something tired.
“No,” he said, his voice quiet but edged with wry humor. “But the wish to live forever… that dies.”
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Stacey makes a new friend at school and invites her home for the first time.
Stacey excuses herself to fetch her Mom and introduce her new friend. As her friend is standing in the living room next to the fireplace, she picks up the attractive vase on the mantle.
When Stacey returns with her mother, her friend is staring curiously into the vase.
“Oh, those are my father’s ashes,” Stacey informs her new friend.
However, this startles her so that she drops the vase with a <gasp!>- ashes and broken vase scattering all around. After turning three shades of red she stammers out, “Oh, no… I’m, oh! I, can’t… didn’t mean to..”
“It’s OK dear,” the mother says. “The vase was just from Wal-Mart.”
The new friend catches her breath enough to say, “But … but your husband’s ashes…”
“Well,” the mother says, “looks like he’ll just have to get himself up and get the ashtray from the kitchen from now on!”
