Losing Her Heroes

Maeve doesn't know it, and I am not going to tell her, but two people she would have admired deeply, had she known them, died last week.  I felt like I had been sucker-punched in the stomach when I heard about both deaths, and I am not ready to explain death to my little girl just yet.

Two strong influences in the field of mathematics and science have ceased to walk the earth.  I am thankful for their legacies, and that the Count will go on in repeat shorts on Sesame Street, if no other puppeteer picks his character up.  He was Maeve's first favorite character on Sesame Street, before Elmo and Big Bird took their places in her heart.  And Maeve is always in awe of astronauts, wherever we find them.  If she was just a little older, I'm sure she would have known exactly who Neil Armstrong was, and would have been so sad that he was gone.

But my darling still has her Count dolly, and her inflatable astronaut, so for her, these heroes have not been lost or diminished at all.  And I am grateful that for now, I have no explaining to do.