介绍:
这是一篇火车爸爸很喜欢的教育小孩关于生死的文章，虽然有时候我也觉得现在给他讲生死的话题似乎有些沉重，但是每次这样想的时候又会有另一个声音在说，这是最好的时候，这个时候不需要背负任何真正对生死的包袱，然而同样可能建立一个正确的生死观，以后也可以从而建立一个正确的宗教观。
这个故事用我见过最轻松而又美好的方式阐述了一个生死观，我给火车读的时候也没有任何沉重感，正相反，我经常感到一种美好……
Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs
When Tommy was a little boy, he had a grandmother and a great-grandmother. He loved both of them very much.
He and his family would go to visit every Sunday afternoon. His grandmother always seemed to be standing by the big black stove in the kitchen.
His great-grandmother was always in bed upstairs because she was ninety-four years old.
So Tommy called them Nana Downstairs and Nana Downstairs.
Almost every Sunday was the same. Tommy would run into the house, say hello to his grandfather Tom and Nana Downstairs and then go up the back stairway to the bedroom where Nana Upstairs was.
"Get some candy," Nana Upstairs would say. And he would open the lid of the sewing box on the dresser, and there would be candy mints.
Once Nana Downstairs came into the bedroom and helped Nana Upstairs to the big Morris chair and tied her in so she wouldn't fall out.
"Why will Nana Upstairs fall out?" Tommy asked.
"Because she is ninety-four years old," Nana Downstairs said.
"I'm four years old," Tommy said. "Tie me in a chair too!"
So every Sunday, after he found the candy mints in the sewing box on the dresser, Nana Downstairs would come up the back stairway and tie Nana Upstairs and Tommy in their chairs, and then they would eat their candy and talk.
Nana Upstairs told him about the "Little People."
"Watch out for the fresh one with the hat with the red feather in it. He plays with matches," she said.
"I will," said Tommy.
"There he is!" she said. "Over by the brush and comb. See him?"
Tommy nodded.
When Nana Downstairs had finished her work by the big black stove and baked a cake to eat before Tommy went home, she would come back upstairs.
"Now," Nana Downstairs would say as she untied Tommy from his chair. "We must all take our naps."
After their naps, Nana Downstairs would comb out Nana Upstairs' beautiful silver-white hair.
Then Nana Downstairs would comb and brush her own hair.
"Now make the 'cow's tail'!" Tommy would say.
And she would twist her hair and pin it up on top of her head.
One time Tommy's older brother came into the bedroom and saw Nana Upstairs with her hair all down around her shoulders, and he ran away.
"She looks like a witch!" he said.
"She does not!" Tommy said. "She's beautiful."
"Time for ice cream!" Shouted Grandfather Tom. And Tommy and his brother went with him, and sometimes their father and their Uncle Charles, down to the ice cream store.
When they got back, it was time for Nana Upstairs to have a snack, and Tommy would help carry the tray of milk and crackers up the back stairway.
Once Tommy's father took movies of the whole family. He took movies of Nana Downstairs and Nana Upstairs. And Tommy stood in the middle.
One morning when Tommy woke up at his own house, his mother came in to talk to him.
"Nana Upstairs died last night," she said.
"What's 'died'?" Tommy asked.
"'Died' means that Nana Upstairs won't be here anymore," Mother answered.
They went to Tom and Nana Downstairs' house, even though it wasn't Sunday.
Tommy ran up the back stairway before he'd even said hello. He ran into Nana Upstairs' room.
The bed was empty.
Tommy began to cry.
"Won't she ever come back?" he asked.
"No, dear," Mother said softly. "Except in your memory. She will come back in your memory whenever you think about her. "
From then on he call Nana Downstairs just plain Nana.
A few nights later, Tommy woke up and looked out his bedroom window at the stars.
All of sudden, a star fell through the sky. He got up and ran to his mother and father's bedroom.
"I just saw a falling star," he said.
"Perhaps that was a kiss from Nana Upstairs," said Mother.
A log time later, when Tommy had grown up, Nana Downstairs was old and in bed just like Nana Upstairs. Then she died too.
And one night, when he looked out his bedroom window, Tommy saw another star fall gently through the sky.
Now you are both Nana Upstairs, he thought.
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