Last Sunday I took Phalen out for a walk while Rowan and Ronan took a nap under the watchfull eye of Dad. On our way to the Library we pass a Mortuary, as we are coming up we see a hearse and a line of cars parked out front. Phalen stops, tugs on my coat and says “mum, he doesn’t like the picture they have inside.” I look down at him, then up at the line of cars. “what?”
“GonGon, he doesn’t like the picture… that one!” he points to two men carrying a flower wreath on a tripod, in the wreath was a picture of an older man. They place the picture next to the hearse as mourners exit the mortuary.
Then I see him, the older male standing next to the hearse. He does seem a bit annoyed with the portrate, I feel in my head ~I would have preferred the picture with my wife~

Phalen inches closer as the casket is carried out, we keep a respectful distance but still end up near a young woman and her child, the little girl seemed to be Phalen’s age. She was sniffling into her mother’s coat. Phalen lets go of my hand, takes her hand and pats her shoulder, then proceeds to rattle off something in Cantonese (4 years of only speaking Cantonese at daycare. Kid is fluent in Cantonese and English, and thanks to Dora he’s getting really good at Spanish). I have limited Cantonese so I picked out ‘little sister’, ‘grandfather’ and ‘dog’.
The mother looks at us and asks, “how did your boy know he wanted us to have his dog?”
“How did he know that he was your grandfather on your mother’s side? Phalen can, well, what do you know about the spirit world?”
The mother smiles, “I watch Ghost Adventures. Will Grandfather rest?”
“of course he will, he just wanted to see everyone in one place before he goes to be with the rest of the family ancestors”
“thank you”
Phalen and I make our way down the block towards the Library. Just as we are about to cross the street, he turns and shouts “Water his Jubilee plant!”
The group falls very silent, watching my son, who smiles and waves, “bye bye GonGon, hug PoPo for MoiMoi. She misses you”. Then he turns to me and says “lets go find Waldo, mum”
One of the things I love about children is that they really have no filter. He had a message to give, so Phalen came right out to give it. No thought to whether the recipient ‘believed’ or not. Sometimes I find myself having to hold back because the person who is meant to have the message is not receptive, I miss the days when I could just up and tell people what they needed to hear.

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