my daily post,
A few months ago, a parent at our sister school picked up her two children. Her baby son was already in the car. They pulled out of the parking lot and to avoid hitting something, the mom wildly over corrected. The car ran off the road, flipped, and caught on fire. The baby was alright, the mom relatively unharmed. The toddler son was killed instantly. At his funeral, which his school paid for, his teachers were his pallbearers. All four of them, around his tiny casket. I wore my scrubs,because I had no time to change. It was the most horrible, gut wrenching thing I'd ever witnessed. I immediately hugged all my students and made them promise that they wouldn't die on me. I couldn't be a 2 yr old's pallbearer.
The Pre-school aged child had burns over 80 percent of his body. He was life flighted, and we all were sure he would not make it. For two months he struggled, and we prayed and sent donations. He was getting better, and plans were being made for him to go home. Last night I got the phone call from my boss. The little four year old had died that morning in his mother's arms.
( “She was holding him because she hadn’t been able to hold him for two months,” Parker said this morning as she drove home from Nashville. “She was holding him when he passed.”)
His teachers will be his pallbearers. All staff and many children are expected to attend. I don't know what to wear to a child's funeral. Black seems, imo, to be reserved for someone who has lived their life. This child was just beginning. All the things that he'll never do. He could have been the one to cure cancer, to fight aids. I've very torn up over this. I didn't personally know this child, but I know many children. And I belong to the group that loved him so much. What do you wear to tell a child goodbye? A part of me wants to wear happy colors, because of how he suffered, and that he will suffer no more, and a part of me still thinks black is most respectful. I want an outfit that reflects the childhood that he had for such a little time, but I don't want to appear disrespectful. I'm thinking of wearing dark blue, but with my teddy bear earrings. I'll be bringing a teddy bear for the gravesite as well. I guess I just want help. What do I wear to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of someone whose life ended before it really began?
Thanks, fatshionistas, for any help to ease my mind. It's trivial to worry about fashion for such an occasion, but it's all I have control over, and I hate feeling like life can be so brutally snatched away.