Baby Bird Funeral

Sarah and Kathleen came to me and told me very solemnly that there was a baby bird in the back yard that had died. They wanted me to come help them try to save it. I told them that baby birds do die sometimes, and that we can't bring them back to life. They asked if they could give the baby bird a funeral and bury it.

So, I got a shovel, dug a hole in the garden in an area we haven't planted anything yet, and moved the baby bird's body to the hole. The girls helped me cover it up with dirt. I asked them if they wanted to say anything, and Kathleen said she wanted to sing it a song. She and Sarah then created an ode to this little bird. I wish I had thought ahead to record it. It was full of their simple wishes that the bird had lived, sorrow that it hadn't and a send of to Heavenly Father, where they knew this baby bird would be happy. The melody they made up was a haunting and beautiful. After they finished singing, Sarah said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to take care of "their" baby bird until they came to heaven someday. She also asked for more baby birds to be born in their yard that wouldn't die so they could feed them when they got bigger.