A Great Loss

Tonight we started the much-awaited sequel to the chapter book we'd been reading for a few weeks.

Book 2 begins with a prologue - a flashback to when the protagonists (four young sisters) were four years younger.  In it, the then-eight-year-old girl describes when the three oldest girls go to the gift shop of the hospital that their mother is in, having delivered their baby sister a week earlier.  The mother is still in the hospital because she's ill with cancer.  The girls were given some money to spend, but instead of buying gifts for themselves, they pool all their resources together to buy their mother a necklace with five hearts on it.  One heart represents each daughter, and the big one in the center is their mother.

They give the mother the necklace and a week later she dies.

I'm reading this aloud, trying so hard not to cry, but completely failing.  There's a moment of silence while I sniffle and prepare to begin chapter one.  Before I can get myself together, Finn asks:

"Wait, she died right after they gave her the necklace?"

"Yes," I say, readying myself to console him.  "A few days after."

He makes a scrunchy face and says, completely appalled, "Why did they waste all their money!?"

Way to zero in on the real tragedy, buddy.