There's Always a First...

It's hard to imagine that this has never happened before, but it really hasn't. Perhaps it's because Liam is a boy, and many of his newer friends that we've had over to play have been boys, and perhaps boys are less observant or less likely to comment on such things. But today we've got a little girl over who Liam has been friends with for three years. She's an awesome girl, she's enthusiastic and has always been very tuned into my pregnancies and babies. She and Liam play hockey together on weekend mornings and today we brought her home afterwards so they could spend the afternoon together.

They were eating scrambled eggs and toast together for lunch, and this little girl was looking around the room and her eyes settled on the three little ceramic plates mounted over our sunroom windows.

"Liam, Aoife, and Charlotte. Charlotte. Why does it say Charlotte?"

It's funny, but I've never explained this to one of Liam's friends before. It seems either they already knew, or they didn't ask. So I thought, here goes.

"Before Liam was born we had another baby, a little girl named Charlotte, and she died."

I said it simply. But of course this astute, thoughtful girl isn't going to take this at face value. They're almost eight years old now.

"How?"

So I explained it. Almost like I was telling her how to make chocolate cookies, or how to piece together a quilt.

Just a list of facts, ending in the death of my firstborn child.