In the workroom: the children paint with finger paint what it feels like to be sad.
Image: Helmut Fricke
A fourth grader talks about dying and sadness for a week. The children plant spider plants, express thoughts and ask questions. Hospice helpers provide answers and create space for feelings.
Im suitcase are the utensils for the fourth day with death. The children unpack: finger paint, a film, a flower pot, stationery. “That means we have a lot to do today.” The woman who says this is in frog class just this week, along with five other women and one man. They come from the Bad Homburg hospice service and talk to the fourth graders in Neu-Anspach about becoming and passing away, illness and suffering, dying and death, consolation and consolation. Thursday is about sadness.
On the screen, the 22 children see an old man in his sick bed who says he is not afraid of death – and then cries anyway. His son is there. The dying says one may cry when one bids farewell to life. The class talks about it. A girl says: “This is not only difficult for those who die afterwards, but also for those who say goodbye.”
