I feel like I could likely write a book about conversations with this child. Johanna is my youngest niece. She has an imagination that doesn’t quit and a vocabulary that can put words to most anything. I was with her and her brothers this weekend. There was lots of time in the car so she shared many of her thoughts and she had an audience to listen. My Mom, my Aunt and I chuckled through much of the ride to Chicago and back.
One thing Johanna has had for many months if not longer, is magic eyes. She often talks about how she puts them on and takes them off. When she puts them on she can see right into heaven. She reports to us regularly on how Uncle Len is doing and what she loves is how he is always happy. She also informed us yesterday she sings to him every day, although she just started the day before and only really sings to him on school days.
Johanna is young and yet she has journeyed 13 months of an intense grief journey with us. As a four and a half-year old, she has observed much and has an amazing ability to process emotions to big for words., The night of Len’s memory dinner, she asked Uncle Nick to come sit by her and explain how Uncle Len’s accident happened. She is curious and aware and does not hesitate in any way to speak of a man loved by all of us.
Johanna has magic jewels that need to be charged and they power her magic eyes. She believes these eyes report the happenings of heaven. I believe these eyes report beautiful stories of her heart. She brings us great joy as she speaks so freely of her uncle, a man she knew for only four years, but one who has a huge space in her heart. Thank you Johanna for helping us in our grief journey with your honest and creative imagination and your simple and amazing faith and awareness of heaven!
