Goodbye, ChuuChu

Friday night, Evie played her first soccer game against another team. Her team is all girls even though it is a co-ed league, and the "Pink Tigers" as they dubbed themselves Friday are generally more interested in hugging each other and running after the other team than actually scoring any points.  Of course, the point of soccer at this age is exercise and sportsmanship, so it's fine that they're not winning, and it is incredibly amusing to watch these 4 and 5 year olds spend a good quarter of the time kicking the ball in the wrong direction.  The team we played this Friday was very well organized - they had defense and offense positions - and they creamed us.  But it was all good fun and the girls didn't care that they lost.  They were more excited about cheerleading during their turns on the bench and about eating "Pirate's Booty" (basically cheese puffs) afterwards for a snack.

Their uniforms are also extremely oversized, which adds to the comedy.

Go, number 8!

Saturday, Mom, Evie, and I went to go see Beauty and the Beast at Theatre Memphis.  It was a fun show and though the father of one of Evie's classmates told me that his 5-year-old had fallen asleep during the show, Evie was engaged the whole time.  She was asking me why they had real people instead of real wolves during the woods scenes and why the guy who played the Beast didn't really get hurt when Gaston stabbed him.  I love that she's taking an interest in theatrical things and that we can share theatre experiences together.

Sadly today we lost our little ChuuChu.  A few weeks ago, we thought the end was near for her.  She has been doing a little better since then, walking around more, but still obviously in pain.  In the last few days she had gotten a large spot on her side that grew about 4 times its size over the course of 5 days and we could tell she was in much more pain than before.  So after confirmation with the vet that we had done everything we could to help ChuuChu, we had to say goodbye to her.  I was worried about how Evie would take it because, unlike a few weeks ago when we thought we were at the end, we didn't tell Evie that ChuuChu might be gone when she got home.

Seth and I both went to get Evie from school and I thought the way we chose to handle it made it easier for all of us.  We waited until we pulled in the driveway rather than telling her on the way home because we anticipated Evie having a complete meltdown and I didn't want to be stuck driving in the front seat, unable to console her with a hug.  We pulled in the drive and got Evie out and Seth said, "Evie, ChuuChu isn't here.  Do you know why?"  We had talked about asking her this question rather than straight up telling her because it might give her a chance to figure it out for herself.  She said, "Why?"  He said, "Because she went to heaven today."  (I don't think Seth is entirely on board with my stance that for now we tell her everything goes to heaven, but I'm not prepared to answer questions about why God wouldn't let animals or people into heaven - and I also don't know exactly what my stance is on that question at all, but I figure we can save that for when she's older.)

So, anyway, Seth said "Because she went to heaven today."  Evie said, "Can I see?", meaning she wanted to look in the house and see for herself that ChuuChu was gone (kind of the opposite of Doubting Thomas).  We opened the door and Evie walked around the house, checking for Chuu.  I was ready for the fall out of tears and wailing, but she simply said, "Yeah, she's gone.  Awwww, Herbie, your Mama went to heaven," and she walked over to Herbie and gave him a hug.

After the endless conversations about death and heaven, I thought there was going to be more to this.  I thought there would be a million more questions.  But it turned out as I had hoped it would: the experience of losing a pet seems to have helped make death make more sense to her.

Seth and I are more upset about losing Chuu than Evie is, which I didn't expect at all.  But thank you, ChuuChu, for teaching our kid one last lesson, that death is a part of life.  I'll miss my little shadow.

Churchill Lo Mayne, April 13, 2004 - September 12, 2016