" If She Be Died She Be Perfect"

Zombies, ghosts, the restless dead...these are the creatures of Halloween.  To Meisyn, they are most confusing.  More than most 7 year old children, she has had death on her mind.  She must address it in a real and direct way.  We as adults can't figure it out, and frankly don't wish to dwell on it.  Halloween in the air, the falling of the autumn leaves, the maturing of her mind, and even the return to school, all combine to make for complicated questions. (The first week back, a friend at school seriously asked, "Meisyn, why are you here?  You are supposed to be dead".  Meisyn asked me then, "Why I not be died yet Mom?" )

Watching an animated Halloween movie from Redbox, this became the conversation:

Meisyn:  Mom, why she be died but not in her sparkly body? Why she walk like that, like a robot?  If she be died she be perfect.  Right mom?  Right?

Mom:  Well, she is a zombie.  Zombies don't get a...zombies well, zombies are just pretend.

How do you explain this???  How do you assure a little girl she will not get stuck as a zombie or lost ghost?  I can't do that.  The world cannot do that.  For her, for us, it has been to rely upon the Savior and the deep testimony we have that He has risen and through that, Meisyn will too. The rising will be in a perfect and sparkly body.  Meisyn will not end when the muscular atrophy causes her twisted and tired body to stop breathing.  How can I prove this?  I can't.  But there is no way my soul can begin to embrace that death is the end of spiritual matter.  The body yes, the spirit no.  My soul, Meisyn's soul, embrace me with the knowledge that there is more, much, much more.

Meisyn, you are right, when it is time, "IF SHE BE DIED SHE BE PERFECT".

“I bear witness of that day when loved ones whom we knew to have disabilities in mortality, will stand before us glorified and grand. Breathtakingly perfect in body and mind. What a thrilling moment that will be. I do not know whether we will be happier for ourselves that we have witnessed such a miracle or happier for them that they are fully perfect and finally free at last. Until that hour when Christ's consummate gift is evident to us all may we live by faith, hold fast to hope, and show compassion one to another.” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, October 5, 2013