Ask and ye shall receive

I work with small children. This leads to conversations that teeter between the endearing and the bizarre. That having been said, I had one of the more moving ones of my life today. I took one of my little fellows with me to wait for the school buses to arrive today. For matters of discretion, I'll just say Jay.  He's 5 and has a little trouble communicating with others.  I don't mean verbally, just connecting. It's causing him some troubles in Kindergarten.  As we waited, we played a little game where I asked him a question and then he asked me a question.  It was mainly about food and home. Apparently 2 of Jay's favorite things. One of his fist questions was who lives in your house. I replied that my mother and I do. On his next turn, he asked me where my Dad was? I told him that my Dad had died. His response was "Oh...I didn't know that".  I peppered my turns with questions about food, his room, his cat.  So, I assumed that I had braced myself for his next question. "What did your Dad look like?". Wow. Simple question. Yet, so not ready to answer. And good Lord, why not? Why am I not ready to answer a 5 year old as to what my father looks like? Because, it's not what he looks like...it's what he looked like. Looked. So, without a glance at my 5 year old counter-part, I glibly answer him. "Gosh, tall with grey hair. He wore glasses. Nice eyes. " I glanced at him. He was barely looking at me. "huh" was his response. I asked the same question of him. And his response was easy. He looked at me after he answered and said "Are you still sad?". "Yep" And Jay paused. For a long time. I mean, long enough that I thought he had moved on to another train of thought. And then he said:  "I'd be sad for a long time too."  He's 5. Five!!!!!! That is why I work where I do. This is why I get paid the crap salary. For a child who communicated perfectly when he needed to. I love my job.