Ladybugs, children and understanding death

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly six years since my son Derek died. Sometimes reminders fly at you from the most unlikely places. One such time was at a recent Poetry at the Farmhouse series.

When pet bugs die:

At the Farmhouse, poet Robert Fanning explained his son, at four, didn’t fully grasp the passing of his aunt until his ladybug friend died. The poem about that incident, from Fanning’s newest book of poems Our Sudden Museum, begins:

A Consideration of Potential Afterlives and the...