Explaining cremation!!

[brightstar1]

My ds7& ds10 were talking about their brother, who died when 10yr old was 3. 7yr old said that his friend had told him that the body is burnt and put in a box.My 10yr olds face was a look of horror.I had always got around the Qs of what happened after he died as my ds has nightmares about fire. Now i feel awful,perhaps i should of explained it before,he hasn't been himself since.I'm really worried now.

[Spagblog]

Maybe it's time you had a chat with them about the idea of the soul and that the body is just a vessel.
The facts of anything are normally less frightening than what can be imagined.

[brightstar1]

Thanks spagblog, we do talk about their brother always being with us,(spirit wise),they seem to like the idea of him seeing what they are doing.Especially my 7yr old,who talks about him all the time,looks after his teddy (which is nice)and talks to him sometimes.But i am concerned that my 10yr old will start the nightmares again,4yr old didnt hear the convo so i will probably have to go through it all again at some point! There is no nice way to explain it is there?

[morningpaper]

Maybe there's a simple book about it that would explain things?

[brightstar1]

Have had a look in the library before,but everything seems to be religious.not that i've got anything against it but i wanted something geared more towards children and the facts not only talking about the religious side of it.

[Tommy]

there was a thread on this a while ago - you may be able to find it if you searched for death or something.
Something I heard was that the body is like "old clothes" or things that you don't need anymore so those can be burnt or buried and the spirit or soul lives on. I think there was a comparison with a bar of chocolate or something - once the chocolate is eaten, there's only the wrapper left - it still looks like the chooolate but it isn't anymore.
Don't know if that makes sense but hope it helps if it does

[brightstar1]

Thanks Tommy, will go searching.