When you were little, in nursery school, we found a monarch caterpillar…. do you remember? We picked a bunch of milkweeds and put him in the insect container and took him home to care for him. Several weeks went by that we would go every day and pick fresh milkweed, clean his container and watch him grow….
we looked up online what kind of things we should put in the container with him to keep him happy. You named him Charlie.
Soon it was time for him to make his chrysalis. You were soooo very excited!!
It was amazing to watch as the chrysalis changed from green to see thru! And finally one day, Charlie was ready to come out of his chrysalis!! We watched as he broke through and started to open up his wings…. it was beautiful to watch…. but even more beautiful to watch you watching and talking to your little sister to “explain” what was going on. ❤️
Eventually, Charlie’s wings were all stretched out and he was ready to fly away.
You started to giggle and cry at the same time…. but called out to Charlie, “don’t forget me. Come and visit me”….
My heart smiled big as I looked at you….
Then next year, we saw a few monarch butterflies flying around and you immediately called out to them… “hi Charlie & Charlie’s friend!”…. “Look Mommy, Charlie came back to visit, and brought his friend too!”
I didn’t have the heart to tell you that most butterflies don’t make it back after the winter and it was probably a different butterfly….. I let you think it was Charlie. For many, many years… I let you believe this….. not until you were in CHEO, reading a school book with your teacher, that you realized that Charlie was gone a long time ago.
You weren’t mad at me for not telling you…. you just gave me the biggest hug and said that you would never fly away from me.
My Loves …. you ARE My Sunshine and your sister IS My Twinkling Star…..