22 September 2008

Good-bye Mr. Chipmunk. Hello, Dead Jesus.

We traveled northwards this weekend to spend some time with my mother-in-law and other family members.

Helga, my mother-in-law, has a chipmunk nest under her back stoop and routinely catches the little guys in a live trap, oftentimes not even using any bait. The chipmunks must be naturally curious (and/or a bit stupid) because they fall for it. Helga is a kind-hearted soul and finds the chipmunks to be a nuisance but she doesn't want to kill them. She simply transports them to a local forest preserve and lets them go, though lately she's been taking the chipmunks to the cemetery where my father-in-law is buried.

Saturday morning found yet another chipmunk in the trap and Flynn could hardly contain herself. She was out the door in a flash to watch the little thing skitter from one end of the trap to the other while she chattered to it. And when Frank and I took Evan to the barber's to get a descent haircut (unlike the chop job he got at a local place before school started), Flynn went with her Oma to let Mr. Chipmunk go and run a couple other errands.

When Flynn and Oma arrived at the cemetery, they said good-bye to the chipmunk then Helga spent a few minutes watering and tending the flowers at my father-in-law's grave. While she was doing this Flynn played among the gravestones, stopping often to admire the statuary (most were a depiction of Jesus).

As they walked back to the car Flynn said, "Oma, there sure are a lot of dead Jesuses around here."

1 comment:

Mommy, Queen Of Everything said...

I love how she said it so matter-of-factly.