When someone has spent a lifetime trying to survive a death sentence, the last thing you want is your children uncovering what you have been at such pains to conceal.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Once a child is confronted with the concept of death there's a certain innocence that goes.
It's hard to know which made me more aware of the impossibility of protecting children - having a child die or having had two live.
Every state in America has an end of life directive or durable power of attorney provision. For the peace of mind of your children and your spouse as well as the comfort of knowing the government won't make these decisions, it's a very popular thing. Just not everybody's aware of it.
Anyone who has lost a child will tell you that they don't recover their sense of endless possibility. Some people hide that well. But after a certain age, almost everyone is carrying something like that around, I suppose.
Happy or unhappy, families are all mysterious. We have only to imagine how differently we would be described - and will be, after our deaths - by each of the family members who believe they know us.
Allowing children to show their guilt, show their grief, show their anger, takes the sting out of the situation.
The death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to the surviving family members.
It's not about what you tell your children, but how you show them how to live life.
Family life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice.
Death can't be so bad if mom went through it. It makes it easier for the child to follow.