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Grandma, does Cassy live in a wheel house?

A five year olds' MIS- pronunciation of a word begins an interesting conversation

Written by Connie Small, June 26, 2001

As usual, by the time I get to bed, I am exhausted and more than ready to go to sleep. But, again, Adam has other plans. I hear his little voice in the otherwise quiet night, trying to carry on a conversation. After a few minutes, I call out; "Go to sleep, Adam, so I can go to sleep. I want to see Cassy in my dream sleep." I hoped the thought of seeing Cassy would appeal enough to him so that he would go to sleep and I could go to sleep too. All was silent for a few minutes and I was just a few breaths away from sleep when I heard his little feet on the well-worn path to my room.

"Grandma why do you want to see Cassy?"
"I want to play with her in heaven's playground."
"Is it wheel?"
"It's a playground with wheels and everything you'd want on a playground."
"Is it wheel?"
"Wheel?"
"Yeah."
"Wheel what, Adam?"
"Is it WHEEL?"

Once more, he's managed to nudge my sleepy brain cells. I try to figure out what wheel he's referring to. Not quite awake enough for intellectual reasoning, I start guessing.

"Ferris wheel?"
"No."
"Merry go round?"
"No!"
"Steering wheel? Car wheel?"
"NO!", accompanied by an exasperated sigh.

I know he's starting to get frustrated with me, but I really am trying to figure out what word he's trying to say that he just can't pronounce properly. I sense that this is important to him, so I struggle with my drowsy gray matter to get some semblance of intelligence awake.

"Do you mean a 'well'?"
"No, WHEEL."

I lay there and felt my mind racing, as I tried to grasp what word he was trying to get through to me. I'm sure, in his five-year-old mind, this was so simple and my adult mind was making it much harder than it really was.

"I'm sorry, Adam, but I just don't understand what you're trying to say. What kind of wheel are you talking about?"
"It's not pwtend, it's WHEEL!"
"OH! Now I get it! REAL!"
"Yeah, does Cassy live in a "wheel" house?"
"A real house?"
"Uh, huh."
"Cassy lives in heaven. She can live in any kind of house she wants to."
"Is it a house like this?"
"Well, it could be."
"Can she live in a cloud house?"
"Sure, she can."
"Cause she's in heaven?"
"Heaven has houses, right?"

Then I understood his questioning. He wanted to know how heaven was compared to here. The concept of heaven is hard for a five-year-old mind. It's hard for a 47 year old mind too.

"Heaven can be whatever you want it to be. Heaven is all things. Heaven is everything. Heaven is love. Heaven is full of people we love, who'll love us forever, like we love them."

He thought this over for just a few seconds. I wondered what was forming in his little mind.

"Heaven is good, isn't it? Cause Cassy lives there and loves us and we love her for ever and ever."
"Yes, Adam, for ever and ever. Plus one more day. That's heaven. That's real."