Your Fish Is Dead

This piece was written on 7/26/07 by Leanne Doyle Duncan.

Bryce got three goldfish for his 7th birthday last month and the first one,
Max, has passed on to "fishy heaven". I was tucking Bryce in last night
and I noticed LOTS of fish food all around the aquarium and he told me
that Ty was trying to feed them. I was finding a good hiding spot for
the food when I saw one of the fish floating. I didn't want to show
Bryce right before bed (we'd already been working on bedtime for an
hour) b/c I knew it would upset him, so I decided to wait until morning.
A little while later, he came running down the stairs with tears
streaming down his face. Plan A= bad idea.

Kelly and I tried to console him as he sobbed, but nothing was helping. He was absolutely devastated. I guess this is really his first memorable experience with
death. Kelly explained the options for disposing of the fish, but Bryce
wasn't having any of it. We finally convinced him to take him into the
bathroom for a "proper burial".

Bryce changed his mind and turned to take him back to his room and dropped him on the floor! It was all Austin and I could do not to burst out giggling at this point. He wanted Max to stay in the aquarium (floating) in case he came back to life.

I laid with him in his bed with the lights off in the room, but on in the
aquarium, discussing what a good fish Max had been as we watched him
float lifelessly around the top. He cried, "Grandma Janyce hasn't even
seen take a picture of the fish before flushing him. So, I watched as Colby
and Ty took turns holding the dead fish and Bryce took pictures.

We went into the bathroom, Bryce wanted me to say a little prayer (glad
that's not on tape) and he dropped the fish in the toilet. Of course,
Colby couldn't stand to be left out, so he reached up and flushed, Bryce
became frantic scooped Max back up into the cup and began crying
again.

Max is back in the cup of water, next to the aquarium in Bryce's
room! Motherhood brings a surprise everyday! I actually cried as my
son mourned the loss of his first goldish!

Leanne