Explaining Death to a 3 1/2 Year Old

"Lightning, Mr the King...look, Tractor died! Who wants to bring him up to heaven? I do, I do!"

So says my 3 1/2 year old to her brothers Cars cars this afternoon. Somehow the subject of my grandmother having died a couple of years ago came up. There is a picture of pregnant me, Nannee, and 16 month old Shelagh on our frig from our visit out to Las Vegas to see her and I think that's what started the conversation. Of course she keeps asking why she can't talk to Nannee and why she can't visit. After all, Nannee gave her some of her very cool pocketbooks and was my grandmother. I don't really know exactly what I believe, but it's not much and it was hard to come up with a simple answer. I told her Nannee lived a long life and it was time for her to leave and move to Heaven where she could watch over us. I told her we couldn't really talk to her anymore, but we could look at pictures and think about her. It seemed to work and obviously the gravity of death does not seem to be weighing on Shelagh too much.