I guess part of it depends on if you believe in an afterlife. We believe we will see the ones we love again when we die. We have also tried to teach our children that everyone/everything dies eventually--it is normal and okay. We are not supposed to live forever. And that the person who died is happy in heaven and it is just us that are sad because we miss them, and that's okay. I currently have a sister dying from cancer. She lives far away so they hardly know her, but I feel I am teaching them a little now by how I react to it.

My oldest son lost his great grandmother when he was 5 and recently my sister had a daughter who was stillborn and all of the kids have had a tough time with that. My sister's best friend gave birth to a baby with trisomy 18 and she died at 6 weeks (9 months after my sister's daughter died). When we saw her friend (ours too), her daughter had already passed away. Zach asked me where the baby was and I told him that she was in heaven and he asked why all of our babies were dying. Not an easy thing to explain.

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Michelle
mother to Zachary and Alexander

Hi there,I'm new here.But my daughter aged 10 lost her father a month ago.So she's at an age where she can understand the concept of death and realises that Dad isn't going to come back.Also she knew that his time would come as he had a brain tumour,though we weren't actually expecting him to die when he did,but she was aware of the fact that it would happen.Which kinda made it easier in someways,it didn't just come totally out of the blue.
She thinks of him as a star,and she's picked one out that she thinks is him.She realises that he won't be coming back,though she wishes he would.It's not always easy to explain but I do believe in age appropriate honesty,with a bit of magic whether it be heaven or stars. Hope that helps.