Does anyone here remember how and when they learned about death? And that

[raccoon]

we die?

[Orrex]

1. I was about three years old

We were visiting my aunt out of state, and while we were there we learned that our elderly neighbor Mr. Huth had died. I dimly recall him to have been a nice man who kept goldfish in his garden, which was downright magical to me at that age. I didn't understand death per se at that time, but I knew that I wouldn't see him again.

Some months later I saw an episode of Mr. Rogers in which he discussed death in the context of one of his fish that had gone belly up. He buried the fish in his garden with a little grave marker labeled "Fish." I seem to remember this as about the first time the whole "mortality" thing really occurred to me. I was probably four at that point--definitely not in kindergarten yet.

Weird that my early memories of death seem to involve fish. Hmm.

[pipi_k]

3. Same here...

Goldfish and turtles, I mean.

When they died, we would bury them in the backyard in an empty My-T-Fine chocolate pudding box.

I was maybe 6 or 7.

Then it was my cat that got hit outside my house. Poor Friskie...

After the road dept. came and got him, the bloodstain was still there. I would stand in front of the house, looking at that stain and just cry and cry.


It wasn't until I was about 18 or so when I went to my first human wake...and I had nightmares for months afterward.

[Orrex]

5. Now that you mention it...

My first close-up experience with human mortality occurred when a high school classmate died in a car accident about five weeks before we would have graduated. We were a small school, so everyone knew everyone else, and it really crushed us.

I was working at a restaurant about two miles from the site, and we saw a shitload of police and EMS racing down the highway. We assumed it was an accident but didn't know that she'd died until a few hours later.

It's a strange moment when you're confronted with human fragility in that way. I suppose I was lucky to have been spared this kind of first-hand exposure for so long, but it was still a great shock when it happened.


Funny ol' world.

[dr.strangelove]

2. Do I remember the exact moment, no

but my grandfather died when I was about 4 and I remember him and the funeral well. I also remember my dog's death just before my grandfather. I am sure that there were the first deaths that I was exposed to.

My own children first saw death when they were 3 and 5. My wife's grandmother passed and we all knew her well.

[Tom_Foolery]

4. I didn't understand death until I was nine...

And my 21-year-old uncle was killed by a drunk driver. We lived in L.A. then, and we had to fly back to Nashville for the funeral. Seeing his body in the casket was somewhat traumatic, but it opened my eyes to what was coming. Like most people, I've had my share of deaths.

[KurtNYC]

6. 2nd grade -- One of my classmates was adopted and his adoptive father was killed in Vietnam

Me and about 6 other classmates who were close to this boy went to the funeral and I remember the casket and little kids in suits. This picture from April 2003, the early days of the Iraq invasion, brought it all back to me:

[Broken_Hero]

7. I was 8yrs old or so

when one of my friends died.

[rurallib]

8. I was @9 I think. The older brother of a close friend

lost control of his car and crashed. I just remember that his family was so sad and their house seemed empty for a while, even though they had 7 kids.

[Scruffy Rumbler]

9. 3....great grandmother. Gramma Crawford.

What it meant to die? Finality? A couple years latter. My father had a rule, any animal that died on the street in front of our house was buried in the garden. We boys had to help dig the whole and as we aged, took on retrieving them from the road or road side. I think it was his way to teach us to stay out of the busy street/ truck route heading into town.

[raccoon]

10. Boy, can I relate to that. When I was a kid, we lived by a busy road. Our animals frequently got

hit in the road.

I remember one day while walking to school, my sister and I found one of our cats in the road. She must have just been hit,
because she was still warm and limp. Not one of my favorite memories.

When I read PET SEMATARY, that struck a chord with me.

[Scruffy Rumbler]

13. Hi Raccoon, Hugs to those little kids of yesteryear.

I know what you mean. I was embarrassed to admit some of those animals were our pets. Our puppy Socrates, a couple of neighbors' cats and on my parent's and grandparent's big open house anniversary party, our beloved English setter, Specs. He and I were about 8.

They too are not my favorite memories, but they did shape my adult ways about pets and caring for them. My 2 current cats are chasing each other across the living room, playing king of the hill on my footstool!

[Aristus]

11. I was about four.

My mother told me that death is when someone goes away forever and never comes back.

My misunderstanding of this explanation prompted me to tell my mother that I would hold on to her, and not let her out the front door when her time came to 'go away.'

I had pictured her shouldering her purse and telling us "Good-bye kids; you're on your own now."

[Art_from_Ark]

12. I remember JFK's funeral

but was a little too young to understand it all at the time. But then came 1968, and all of a sudden, in June of that year, I had to deal with it on seemingly a weekly basis. First, my great aunt died. Then Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Then my dog was run over by a car. Then there was the announcement on the radio that Helen Keller had died. Then a neighbor kid was was hit and killed by a car maybe a hundred yards from where my dog was. And a month later, one of my best friends from elementary school died from childhood leukemia.

[TuxedoKat]

14. I don't know the exact age

I must have understood it from about age four or so. I probably learned about it from going to church. I knew it was permanent. My younger brother died when I was six and when I was told I had the most, horrible sickening feeling that I've ever had so I definitely knew it was permanent.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I learned young.

My brother was killed in a hunting accident when he was 15 and I was 7. My mother was killed by a drunk driver the next year. I know all about death. I no longer fear it.

[femmocrat]

16. I was in fourth grade.

My friend's older brother died from a bleeding ulcer. He was only 17 and so handsome. My mom took me to the funeral home and I can remember crying all night.

[pscot]

17. I went to a Catholic grade school

and when I was 8 or 9 a young priest died, Father Mannix. He lay in state in the church and we all filed past the open coffin to view the body. I haven't thought about that in over 60 years. Thanks, I guess.